


Never Cry Elk

by Kittens



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Animal Death, Blood, Character Death, M/M, Minor Poe Dameron/Finn/Rey, Violence, mentions of animal abuse, unrealistic depictions of a rehab center with funding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-26
Updated: 2019-06-25
Packaged: 2019-10-16 10:40:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 21
Words: 58,413
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17548118
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kittens/pseuds/Kittens
Summary: Kylo Ren works at his uncle's wildlife rehabilitation center and he's seen all kinds of horrific things. He helps the animals that he can, but he also does everything he can to make sure that the people responsible for the injuries and deaths never hurt an animal again. So far, he's gotten away with it, but then he attracts the attention of an agent from the Wildlife Crimes Division, Armitage Hux, who is determined to learn the identity of the wildlife avenger. But it might work out better for the two of them to work together than for Hux to turn Kylo in.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I promise this fic is more lighthearted than it seems given the tags, however, there are a lot of dead animals in here. If it makes it any better, there's not any scenes that involve an animal dying but they are dealing with the bodies. And the character death tag is not for Hux or Kylo. If you're not sure about any of the tags, you can always feel free to contact me on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/Battle_Walrus) or [Tumblr](https://threewinterssnow.tumblr.com/) and I can give you more details. Also, if you want to know more about just why the fuck anyone would write this AU, I have explained myself on [Dreamwidth](https://coragyps.dreamwidth.org/2199.html).
> 
> Special thanks to thewightknight for coming up with the title!

Hux felt like he’d been looking through files for hours, although a quick glance at his clock showed it had only been twenty minutes. Looking at his stack of rejected cases, he wondered if perhaps he was being too picky. Not every case could be interesting, but he also knew what a waste of time it would be to try investigating every killed squirrel or rabbit. There were simply far too many, and unfortunately, the Wildlife Crime Division didn’t have the personnel or time to look into everything.

It seemed like every case file he looked at was some small animal that might have been killed on purpose. Of course, Hux knew from experience that unless there was an eyewitness, it could be difficult to determine if it was accidental or intentional. In most cases, it would take a necropsy, and their department only had one person who could do that. Hux didn’t want to overload poor Mitaka with tons of dead squirrels that wouldn’t even lead to any real investigation.

He’d just put another file in his reject pile, which was starting to grow large very rapidly, when his partner walked over. Hux looked up at her, which he would have had to do even if he was standing up. Even though he was six feet tall and didn’t have to look up to talk to most people, Phasma stood above everyone Hux had ever known.

“You find anything worth our time?” he asked Phasma as he grabbed another file. That one was a duck and even just glancing it over, Hux thought it was most likely killed by a car and not malicious intent. 

“You’re so picky,” Phasma said, placing a hand on his stack of rejected files. “Not every case has to be a career-making one. Just pick one.”

“Doing that is just a waste of time,” Hux said, dropping yet another file in the rejects, not even caring that Phasma’s hand was in the way. “Most of these cases don’t have enough detail to go on. Investigating is a waste of our time and the department’s resources.”

“So if I find a rabbit or something with enough information, you’ll take the case?” Phasma asked, reaching for a stack of files.

“Sure,” Hux said. “I don’t care what it is. Just as long as there’s something to actually investigate.”

Phasma started looking through the files with him and within a few minutes, she handed him one. Hux gave a skeptical look but took it from her. It was an eastern fox squirrel that had been found severely injured in someone’s yard. Although the witness hadn’t seen it, she did know the neighbor’s teenager had a BB gun and had seen him shooting at small animals before.

It wasn’t much to go on, but it was more than most of the others had. And he knew if he didn’t take that case, Phasma would only accuse him of being picky. Wanting to prove to her that he really didn’t care if it was a small case or not, he nodded.

“We’ll take this one,” he said. “I’ll just call it in downstairs so we can get the necropsy done.”

As usual, Mitaka sounded like he was completely exhausted over the phone, but he said as long as he could find the body, he’d be able to get preliminary necropsy results for them by the end of the day. That was at least one benefit to working on a small animal case - it was quicker to perform the necropsy.

“Better start making phone calls,” Hux said. “I’ll start compiling the data.”

“Why do I have to make the calls?” she asked as she headed to her desk.

“You picked the case,” Hux said. “That means you get phone duty.”

It wasn’t as if there were that many calls to make. Just the witness who had found the squirrel and the rehab center that had taken it in. He glanced at the rehab center and saw that it had been taken to the Skywalker Wildlife Center. They were one of the best and kept meticulous details about their patients. If they had seen something suspicious, they’d be able to tell them.

While Phasma made her phone calls, Hux pulled up the location data for the dead squirrel. It was in a suburban neighborhood, which meant firing the BB gun there was illegal, regardless of whether or not any animals had been harmed. But they didn’t know if it had even been a BB gun yet. It could just as easily been hit by a car. 

Hux also pulled up the other cases from the same area. If it had been a kid with a BB gun, chances are they’d shot more than just one squirrel. While there were definitely several other dead and injured animals in the area, Hux didn’t think it was anything out of the ordinary. Maybe the kid was a bad shot. Or maybe it had just been a simple accident.

“You get anything?” Hux asked Phasma once he’d compiled all the data they already had.

“Nothing new from the woman who found it,” she said. “Still insists it’s Brent Peterson next door who shot it although she didn’t actually see him do it. Just says that he’s out there shooting cans all the time and that she’s seen him turn it on wildlife.”

“Has she called the police?” Hux asked. The regular police could do quite a bit more than they could. Unless they had evidence that he’d shot it, there was nothing they could do. Well, they could talk to him and his parents and hope they might take any law enforcement showing up at their door as serious. And take the gun away. Obviously, no one in that household was responsible enough to handle it.

“No,” Phasma said. “I suggested it, and she didn’t seem to be aware that it was illegal to discharge a BB gun within city limits. Maybe next time, she’ll do that and actually stop him. Unless we get evidence that he’s done something and we can arrest him.”

“You want to arrest some kid?” Hux asked. Usually when it was a minor’s first offense, they’d give them a warning and maybe a ticket depending on their attitude, but they almost never arrested kids. Especially not on their first offense. Judges were far too likely to dismiss the cases.

“Just to scare him,” Phasma said. 

“And then we’d probably hear from mommy’s lawyer,” Hux said, rolling his eyes. “We’re not going to scare a kid.”

“Yeah, I know. Still. I sometimes think that would keep a lot of people from offending again.”

“Take it up with Director Sloane.” Ultimately, it was their department’s director who would make the call on whether or not they could arrest the kid. Of course, Hux knew she’d tell them no. She didn’t want to deal with the extra paperwork and angry parents.

“Maybe you should bring it up. She thinks you’re the best investigator we have.”

“I am the best investigator we have.”

“Well, best investigator, did you find out anything about our case yet?”

“No,” he said with a sigh and he quickly relayed what he’d learned. Which boiled down to the fact that unless the necropsy turned anything up, the case was going to be a dead end. Which was exactly what Hux had expected when he took the case. He’d been doing the job long enough to know that most small animal cases really didn’t go anywhere.

At least working on a case was somewhat better than just looking over potential case files. At least he was doing something, even if in the end, nothing came from it. Maybe he’d get Mitaka a gift to apologize for wasting his time with the necropsy too.

Just to be thorough, Hux decided to look for other police reports not related to wildlife. Maybe the teenager in question had been in trouble before. But nothing in the local police files came up for that area. There had been one illegal discharge of a firearm two years prior several streets over, but nothing on the street they were looking at. He checked the federal database as well, but as expected, there was nothing there either.

After checking every possible database, Hux realized he’d already exhausted all his investigative options for the moment. Not unless he wanted to drive out and start knocking on doors. But he wasn’t about to do that unless he knew an actual crime had taken place. Instead, he answered a few emails and reviewed some reports that he had to send in to Director Sloane. They weren’t due yet, but Hux always preferred to have things complete early so he didn’t have to worry about them.

He was just considering asking Director Sloane if she had any paperwork she needed help with while he was waiting on necropsy results. It wasn’t the first time he’d done that, which had earned him the title of “suck up” early in his career. Now, no one would dare call him that. At least not to his face. He was the best investigator they had, after all, and the director’s favorite. No one wanted to be on his bad side.

Before he could make it to her office, his phone rang and he saw it was Mitaka. He stopped and answered immediately.

“This is Hux,” he said.

“Yeah, Hux,” Mitaka said. “You might want to get down here.”

“On my way.” He caught Phasma’s eye and looked towards the elevator. She was on her way there before Hux had even hung up the phone.

They walked into the brightly lit basement and found Mitaka standing next to a necropsy table with one small squirrel resting on it. At first, Hux thought he hadn’t even started the necropsy, but he knew that Mitaka would never call him down for nothing. 

“What did you find?” he asked. Once he was next to the table, he saw that he had at least started.

“Take a look,” Mitaka said, peeling back a flap of skin to reveal the squirrel’s rib cage. There was a perfectly circular bruise there. Such an injury only came from one thing.

“BB gun,” Phasma said, gently poking the area with a finger. “Rehab center said it had several broken ribs and a punctured lung. Looks like they were right about that.”

“This injury definitely occurred before death and hadn’t started to heal, so as of right now, I’d say that’s the cause of death.”

“I thought cause of death was euthanasia,” Hux said, looking over the squirrel for anything else that might be useful.

“Well, yes,” Mitaka said, shuffling nervously. “But you know what I meant. Anyway, do you want me to continue with the full necropsy or is this enough?”

Hux always preferred to be thorough in everything he did and he almost immediately told Mitaka to continue. But he also knew that even if Mitaka could pull a note out of the body saying who had shot it, it wouldn’t lead to any more than a fine. There really was no sense in wasting his time that way. Not when he had so many other cases to work on.

“Not at the moment,” Hux said. “Add your findings to the case file and then put the squirrel back on ice. I don’t suspect we’ll have further need of the body, but we’ll hold onto it just in case.”

Mitaka looked relieved that he wouldn’t have to do the full necropsy. Now that they had what they needed, Hux and Phasma headed out to the neighborhood where the squirrel had been shot. They didn’t have any proof as to who shot it, but they could at least talk to the kid and hopefully his parents as well.

Hux had already looked up Brent Peterson and knew which house he lived in. Which meant they wouldn’t have to talk to the neighbor again. She seemed like the lonely old lady who would talk their ears off just to have some company. Hux was far too busy for that.

They knocked on the door and a teenager about fifteen or sixteen years old answered. Hux noted that he had two black eyes and wondered how that had happened, but that wasn’t important at the moment. The kid looked terrified when he saw their uniforms, but it also might have just been Phasma. She was tall and muscular, which was enough to intimidate just about anyone.

“Are your parents home?” Hux asked. The kid shook his head. “Are you Brent Peterson?”

“Hey, I already said I’m sorry,” he said, holding his hands up. “I was just playing around. I didn’t mean anything by it, I swear!”

“What are you talking about?”

“You guys are here about the squirrel, aren’t you?”

“Yes,” Hux confirmed, thinking about everything the kid had said so far. “Has someone else come by asking about it?”

“He didn’t really ask,” Brent said, pointing to his face. “He just punched me a few times and took my BB gun and shot me with it. He got the point across, okay? I’m not going to shoot anything ever again. And that weirdo took my BB gun anyway.”

“Can you describe him? Did you file a police report?”

“No,” he said, shaking his head. “I’d be in so much trouble if my parents found out about what I’d done. I don’t know what he looked like. He was wearing all black. Like some kind of weird robes. And a motorcycle helmet or something.”

“Right,” Hux said. “Well, look, Brent. We just wanted to talk to you about the incident and make sure you don’t do anything like that again. You do know you aren’t supposed to fire BB guns within city limits, right?”

He nodded. “I’m not even going to get another one,” he said. “I promise. You’re not going to tell my parents, are you?”

Under normal circumstances, Hux absolutely would have told them just to make sure the kid didn’t get into trouble again, but he’d been through enough. Getting him grounded wouldn’t help anyone.

“Not this time,” Hux said with a sigh. “But we’d better not have to send anyone out here again, got it?”

Brent agreed quickly, making more promises as Hux turned and left. That had not gone as expected. Usually, they had to sit down with the parents and very slowly explain the situation while also assuring them that their kid wouldn’t be arrested. He hadn’t expected someone else to have already convinced the kid that he definitely did not want to be shooting wildlife.

“So,” Phasma said once they were back in their car. “Some weirdo in black. I’ve heard rumors about that.”

“About what?” Hux asked. He didn’t usually pay attention to rumors, but if it was relevant, then Hux was interested.

“Someone who goes around and beats up people who hurt animals,” Phasma said. “This is the most concrete proof I’ve heard of him, though. Mostly it’s just a bunch of scared people who are all beaten up promising not to do it again. This kid is the first one to actually admit to what happened. Or at least that I’ve heard of.”

“Interesting,” Hux muttered. If he hadn’t seen and heard the kid, he wouldn’t believe it. What kind of person would run around and fight someone on behalf of a squirrel? But someone had definitely scared that kid.

“Yeah, interesting, isn’t it?” Phasma said as they started driving.

“Very,” Hux said. “Unlike something else. You know what wasn’t interesting, Phasma?”

“This case?” she guessed, smiling.

“Exactly,” Hux said. “Just like I suspected. Absolutely nothing came of it.”

“That’s not true,” Phasma said. “We learned about the wildlife avenger. We know it’s probably a male and he wears black. And a helmet.”

“Oh, yes,” Hux said. “Because that’s relevant to our job.”

It was certainly interesting though and Hux was very curious about who would do such a thing. But it was not the sort of case they investigated. Unless the man harmed wildlife - which seemed to be the exact opposite of his M.O. - then he was a problem for a different department and Hux wouldn’t waste any time worrying about him.


	2. Chapter 2

Caring for over fifty animals was quite a task, but Kylo Ren was up to it. Sometimes, it meant sixteen hour days at the Skywalker Wildlife Center, but it wasn’t like he had much else going on with his life. Currently, he was working on feeding the carnivores, which usually took the longest, especially if he had something large to thaw out. 

Of course, that’s what he was dealing with at the moment - cutting up a chicken in order to feed out to the various birds and mammals who were being rehabbed. It was still partially frozen inside, so once he had it cut up into smaller pieces, he tossed it into some warm water so it would get to the proper temperature faster. Once that was done, he moved on to the second chicken. 

He was halfway through skinning the third and final chicken when the kitchen door opened. Kylo glanced over and saw his cousin Rey walk in. He didn’t say anything to her - he just continued tearing the skin and feathers off.

“Hey Ben,” Rey said, coming over to lean on the counter. “You’re making a mess in here.”

“Let’s see you cut up three chickens and not make a mess,” he grumbled. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Rey open her mouth to argue with him and he was quick to cut her off. “And actually feed your animals before it’s dark.”

Rey had never shied from cutting anything up in order to feed the animals, but she definitely was slower at it than Kylo. It made cleaning easier, but Kylo would much rather get the animals fed and then spend an extra ten minutes cleaning up the mess he’d made. And he’d still manage to finish before Rey would even be halfway through preparing the chickens.

“It doesn’t take me that long,” she said. Kylo didn’t bother to argue with her. He didn’t care enough to do so. 

“Are you just going to stand there?” he asked after she’d been watching him for a while. She really didn’t have much reason to be in the kitchen at all, and if she didn’t want to help him, he wanted her out of his way.

“I was wondering if you were going to have any extra food,” she said.

“Probably,” he said. He usually pulled extra food from the freezer just in case they had new patients coming in. But it almost always ended up being saved for the next day. Or for the education animals, which is what he knew Rey was wanting. “But I’m using it tomorrow.”

“Or you could let me use it for the education birds,” Rey suggested. 

“Only if you clean the kitchen for me,” Kylo said.

“Deal!”

Kylo grinned - she’d agreed too quickly without thinking about how much extra food he would have or getting him to agree not to be excessively messy. He watched her face as he held out a bloody piece of the chicken and shook it around the room.

“You’re such an asshole, Ben.”

“Maybe I wouldn’t be if you called me by my real name!”

“Ben is your real name! I’m not calling you whatever dumb name you and your weird roommates use.”

“Can you just fuck off?” he growled. He’d had enough of dealing with her. There was a reason he preferred working with animals to people, and Rey was reminding him of all those reasons. “I’ll let you know when I’m done feeding.”

Rey left without further argument, although she did call him a name under her breath. Kylo didn’t really care what she called him, just as long as she stayed out of his way. Almost everyone else at the Skywalker Wildlife Center avoided him because of his bad attitude, but Rey had never cared about that. Sometimes, it was nice that he’d have someone to talk to when he was in a bad mood, but mostly, it was annoying that she would bother him.

Once he’d finished cutting up the food, he looked at his current patient list and started dividing up the chicken, then he added the medications for those that needed them. Finally, he was ready to actually feed, which was the quickest part of the process. Each enclosure had a small door that he could open and toss the food in. He only had to be careful that he didn’t get grabbed by an over excited and hungry critter.

Because Rey wanted any of his leftovers, he decided to give each animal as much as he possibly could without getting anyone sick and he gave meat to the animals that didn’t necessarily need it, but would gladly eat it as well. Even using as much meat as he possibly could, he had nearly an entire chicken left. 

He left the rehab side of the building - what he thought of as his side - and crossed through the visitor center and over to Rey’s side, which was where all the Center’s permanent residents lived. Unfortunately, not every animal who came in could be released back into the wild. Some of those ended up staying as educational ambassadors. Rey and her team cared for them and took them out with the public to teach them about wildlife. Kylo knew it was important, but he had no patience for dealing with the public, which was why his uncle was more than happy to let him simply deal with the animals in rehab.

When he found Rey, she was in the break room, and Kylo wasn’t entirely sure what he walked in on. She and her boyfriend Finn were both sitting on Poe Dameron’s lap. What they were doing with the Center’s mechanic was beyond Kylo and he didn’t care enough to ask questions. Rey and Finn almost immediately stood up when he walked in, but Kylo pretended nothing was out of the ordinary.

“I’m done feeding if you want to grab the leftovers,” he said. He looked at the three of them and once again decided he didn’t need to know what the hell he’d seen, so he just left. 

Back on his side of the building, he walked by his uncle’s office and noted that the door was ajar. He glanced in as he passed and noticed that there was a tall, skinny man in there talking to Luke. The man wore a tan shirt and dark blue pants with all kinds of things on his belt. Including a gun. Probably some kind of law enforcement, which wasn't too concerning. There were always people talking to Luke, including cops who dealt with wildlife issues, but then he caught some of what the visitor was saying.

“-violent crimes that I believe are linked to your Center,” he said. Kylo froze - that was not good. Someone had managed to make connections. Was that man a regular cop? The kind that might arrest him? He knew he couldn’t be caught eavesdropping, so he instead decided he’d clean the enclosure closest to Luke’s office.

Unfortunately, cleaning made enough noise and the conversation was quiet enough that Kylo only managed to pick up a few words here and there, and it wasn’t enough to figure out exactly what they were discussing. But Kylo already had a pretty good idea. He just wished he could know just how much the cops already knew.

He was just about to step out of the clean enclosure when he noticed the man was right there, watching him. When he saw him inside Luke’s office, he’d noticed he was tall, but now he could see that the redhead was nearly as tall as he was, although he was far skinnier. Kylo couldn’t help but think of how easy it would be to break him in two as the man stepped closer to him, blocking him in the entry to the enclosure. Despite the fact that he was clearly bigger, Kylo didn’t like the man standing between him and the only way out of the enclosure.

“Can I help you?” Kylo asked, taking a good look at the man’s uniform. The pants and short-sleeved top were relatively plain but on the left side of the shirt, it read “Hux” and he could see a patch on the left sleeve, although he couldn’t see what it said from where he stood. What was more interesting than the uniform was the man himself. If he wasn’t a cop, Kylo would have found him attractive. Why did the first good-looking man he’d come across in ages also happen to be a cop?

“I’m Agent Hux with the Wildlife Crimes Division,” he introduced himself, holding out his hand.

“Uh. Kylo Ren,” he said, taking Hux’s hand and shaking it.

“Do you mind if I ask you a few questions, Mr. Ren?” Hux asked.

“I’m pretty busy right now,” Kylo said. It wasn’t entirely true. Since Rey had agreed to clean up for him, he only needed to go through and double check everything and feed a few of the animals who needed some special care.

“This will only take a few minutes,” Hux said. Kylo just shrugged and Hux continued. “How long have you worked at the Skywalker Center?”

“I think about six or seven years.”

“And what do you do here?”

“Everything, really,” he said with a shrug. “Mostly I’m taking care of the rehab animals. Feeding, cleaning, basic medical care. That sort of thing.”

“I imagine you see some pretty terrible things.”

“Uh… yeah. I guess.” He started playing with the spray bottle of cleaner in his hands. It was hard to stand still and not be doing anything.

“Does it make you angry? Seeing the things people do to animals?”

“Yeah. It’d make anyone angry.” He balanced the bottle on his finger and started swinging it back and forth. Slowly, at first, but then he started going faster.

“You ever do anything about it?”

“Well, yeah. That’s my job, isn’t it? I fix all the animals up so they can be released.” He almost swung the bottle hard enough that it went flying, but he reached up with his other hand to steady it, and then started swinging it again, once again at a slow speed.

Hux didn’t have another question immediately, and Kylo wasn’t sure if that was a good sign or not. He wanted the questions to end and Hux to leave, but although he wasn’t asking anything, he was still there, watching him. Kylo was watching him as well, and had stopped paying attention to the bottle he was swinging and it finally went flying off his finger.

“Fuck,” Kylo muttered, bending down to pick it up. He’d stepped forward as he reached for it and when he stood up, he was far closer to Hux than he was expecting. He hadn’t paid attention to how he’d picked up the bottle, only wanting to pick it up as quickly as possible, and then when he saw Hux so close to him, he accidentally tightened his grip on the bottle. Unfortunately, he was holding the trigger of the bottle and it was aimed right at Hux.

“Fuck, shit!” Kylo swore loudly. “I’m so sorry! I’m so fucking clumsy sometimes! It’s just vinegar. But you’re not, like, allergic, are you?”

“Don’t worry about it,” Hux said. He reached out and took the bottle from Kylo’s hands, his smaller hand ever so briefly brushing against his. Kylo was thankful for that, as he was still fumbling with it. “Is there a reason you’re so nervous?”

“Who wouldn’t be nervous talking to the cops?” Kylo countered.

“Someone who has nothing to hide.”

“I don’t like talking to cops, okay? Especially not hot ones!” Kylo realized too late what he had said and he froze, completely mortified that he’d even thought such a thing. He hoped for a second that he hadn’t actually said it out loud, but the shocked look on Hux’s face told him that he most definitely did.

Not wanting to talk to him anymore - or ever see him again - Kylo walked by the cop, hitting him in the shoulder as he went. He quickly walked into the kitchen area and slammed the door before dropping to the floor. He couldn’t believe he’d said that. To the man’s face.

He wanted to die.

The door opened and if the cop had followed him, he thought he might actually die from embarrassment. He looked up and saw that it was just Poe, but he didn’t pay any attention to him. Poe was not the person he wanted to talk to at the moment. Not that he ever wanted to talk to him.

“So,” Poe said. “You think the cop is hot, do you?”

Kylo reached up and grabbed something from the counter above him and threw it in Poe’s direction. It was only after he’d thrown it that he realized it was a knife. Poe didn’t even flinch and the knife bounced off the wall next to him before clattering to the floor.

“I take it that means you think he’s really hot,” Poe said. “He does have a nice ass, I suppose. Didn’t really look at his face.”

“Fuck off, Poe.” He couldn’t imagine the scenario getting any worse. He’d told the cop he thought he was hot, and apparently, he’d said it loud enough for Poe to hear. Which meant that Luke had probably heard it as well. And even if he hadn’t, Poe wouldn’t keep the information to himself. He’d tell everyone else as soon as he could.

Kylo really wanted to just die.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For a little bit of background on how this fic came to be and some animal facts, you can check out my [Dreamwidth](https://coragyps.dreamwidth.org/2498.html) page. I'll probably put a few animal facts there for each chapter!


	3. Chapter 3

Hux had a stack of case files to work through, but because he knew it wouldn’t take him long to complete them, he decided to focus on something more interesting. He couldn’t stop wondering about the identity of the so-called wildlife avenger and he’d discreetly collected as much information as he could without anyone finding out what he was up to.

His biggest and only lead was that they all seemed connected to the Skywalker Wildlife Center. He knew from talking to Luke Skywalker that any of their employees or volunteers could access the information about the injured wildlife that came through their center, which didn’t narrow it down too much - they had seven paid staff members and nearly a hundred volunteers.

But everyone seemed to agree that it was a male, so he ruled out all of the women. He also didn’t think it was Skywalker himself. The man was a bit too old, Hux thought, although he looked into the man’s record and saw he’d been quite rebellious as a youth. Still, nothing that indicated he’d resort to such violence. For similar reasons, he decided it wasn’t Poe Dameron either.

He briefly considered Finn Jackson. He’d had a bit of a troubled past being an orphan and running away from his foster home on several occasions, but ever since he was taken in by Skywalker, the kid had kept himself out of trouble. And his record didn’t show any signs of violent behavior. When looking at his social media, Hux decided that he was definitely at the bottom of the list of suspects. Every photo of him was either with Poe and Skywalker’s daughter, Rey, and if neither of them were with him, he was with an animal of some kind. It was almost nauseating looking at Finn and his friends with a bunch of cute kittens in one photo. Definitely not what he would expect from a violent criminal.

As he went through the list of volunteers and staff, he kept returning to one name in particular - Ben Solo. He was Skywalker’s nephew, and Skywalker had mentioned that he liked to go by Kylo Ren, so Hux wasn’t suspicious about him giving him a different name. But something about the way he acted just seemed… off. Hux wasn’t quite sure what it was.

He kept going back to the short interaction he had with the man. Although he certainly looked big enough to go around beating people up and intimidating them, he also seemed incredibly uncoordinated and awkward in the way he moved. Which made Hux think maybe it wasn’t him. But he also seemed to be incredibly uncomfortable speaking to him, which made him think he was hiding something. But for all he knew, he might have just kept some feathers or something along those lines. Which while still illegal - and actually in Hux’s jurisdiction - he wasn’t likely to bother bringing charges against him for that.

When he looked up Ben Solo’s criminal history, his first thought was that he’d found the right guy. He’d been in trouble many times for getting into fights. And while no one had ever pressed charges, he’d been arrested for assault several times. Hux nearly jumped up from his desk before he remembered that there wasn’t anything he could do about it. He didn’t investigate human-on-human crime. 

And then he looked at the information closely. Ben Solo hadn’t been in any legal trouble for years. Nearly seven. Which was right about the time he’d started working at the Skywalker Wildlife Center. That made sense. Skywalker had mentioned that he’d hired Ben as a favor to his sister in an attempt to keep him out of trouble, although Hux hadn’t asked what kind of trouble he’d been getting into.

Ben Solo definitely had the history of violence, but he’d also been behaving himself while working with wildlife. Maybe it had worked out like his mother had hoped and working with animals had helped calm him down. Based on his meeting with him, Hux wouldn’t have thought him to be a violent person, but he also only seemed to want to get away from him. Which may in part have been due to what he’d said before he ran off.

Hux had not expected the man to call him hot and he had no idea how to respond to that. At least Solo had taken off before he had to say anything. Of course, now that he was a few days removed from the situation, Hux couldn’t help but smile. Someone thought he was hot. That almost never happened. And Solo wasn’t unattractive himself. Not that anything could ever come of it. Especially since he was currently the subject of his investigation.

Although it wasn’t an official investigation, Hux told himself. There wouldn’t actually be anything improper about it. He immediately pushed the idea from his mind. Obviously, it had been far too long since he’d been on a date if he was considering the first person who had called him hot.

“What are you smiling about?” Phasma asked from her desk.

“Nothing,” Hux said, the smile quickly turning into a scowl. 

“You’ve been busy working on something over there,” she said as she rolled her chair over to his desk. “And it has nothing to do with finding us a new case.”

“You don’t know that,” Hux muttered, although he knew it was too late to hide what he’d been looking into. Even if he tried to hide it, Phasma would find out eventually anyway. 

“What is all this?” she said, picking up the notepad he’d been taking notes on. She glanced over it and then snorted. “Really? Trying to figure out who the wildlife avenger is? Why?”

“You don’t want to know who would do that?” Hux asked.

“Sure, but I’m not going to go looking for him. If we learned who it was, don’t you think we’d have an obligation to turn him in?”

“And you wouldn’t want to do that?”

“Hell no,” she said. “Why would I? This guy goes around beating people up who hurt animals. Fuck those people.”

“And what if he beats up the wrong person? There’s a reason we operate within the law, Phas. So if we screw up, we can be held accountable. Who’s holding this guy accountable?”

“His conscience?” Phasma shrugged. “Look, maybe he gets the wrong person every now and then, but I think he gets a lot more done than we do. Half the time, all we do is tell someone not to do it again and then they’re probably just more careful about getting caught. This guy’ll actually stop them. And maybe it’ll mean less hurt animals in the future. And less work for us.”

“You’re not wrong,” Hux said, looking at the photo of Ben Solo on his computer screen. It was an older photo, and he simply looked like an awkward teenager as opposed to the awkward adult Hux had met. He also didn’t have the scar on his face as a teenager. Perhaps he didn’t get that as a rebellious teen.

“So is that your suspect?” Phasma asked, pointing to the picture.

“I’m not sure yet.”

“So why were you smiling while looking up his criminal history?”

“I wasn’t,” Hux said, which wasn’t completely a lie. “I was thinking about something else.”

“Sure. So. What are you going to do about him?”

“Solo? Nothing. It’s not like I can do anything even if I had proof he was somehow involved. Not our deal. I was just curious to know who it is.”

“Good,” Phasma said. “His criminal history makes him sound like an asshole, but maybe it’s good he’s beating people up who deserve it.”

Hux didn’t know if he completely agreed with that, but he wasn’t about to start an argument about it. And even if he had absolute proof that it was Ben Solo, Hux wasn’t entirely sure he’d turn him in to the proper authorities. Phasma did have a point - the guy was protecting wildlife even if it was in a somewhat misguided way.

“Hux! Phasma!” 

They both spun around at the sound of their names and saw that Director Sloane was standing in the doorway of her office with a folder in her hand. Hux immediately stood up and walked quickly over to her. If she was assigning them a case, it must be important.

Although he had a head start, Phasma had a longer stride and managed to get to the file first. Unfortunately, she was too tall for him to look over her shoulder and see what kind of case it was. 

“High priority case,” Sloane said. “Live animal in danger.”

“Let’s go,” Phasma said, handing the file to Hux as she took off. Knowing she’d leave him behind if he took too long, Hux didn’t even look at the file and followed her. Once he was in the passenger seat, he finally had a chance to read over the case details.

“Fuck,” he said, reading over the file. It was definitely a bad situation. Hux just hoped they made it in time before something terrible happened to the kidnapped bird.

Hux knew that some people kidnapped wildlife while having the best of intentions, thinking it might be abandoned and trying to save it. But those people at least made an effort to get the animal to the right place. But this man had done no such thing. Fortunately, he was stupid enough to post pictures on social media and it had caught the right person’s attention. 

Although Hux didn’t feel comfortable driving at high speed, Phasma was the opposite which was why Hux was always glad to let her drive when time was critical. He just tried not to look at the speedometer to see just how fast they were going. With her skills - and borderline reckless driving - they’d cut the forty minute trip nearly in half.

They pulled up to a house on the outskirts of a small town. It was just barely visible from the road and surrounded by trees. There were no other cars parked on the driveway and when Hux knocked on the door, no one answered. He and Phasma took a look around and there didn’t seem to be anyone home. They knocked again, but still no one answered.

As it was always easier to remove an animal when the people weren’t around, they walked around a second time, but this time, they checked all the doors and windows. When they got to the back door, they were lucky enough to find it unlocked.

He and Phasma had worked enough cases that they didn’t even need to speak - they simply split up and started searching the house for any sign of the baby bird. It didn’t take long for Phasma to call out and Hux went to join her. When he saw the scene before him, he cringed.

A baby hawk, covered in downy feathers, was sitting on the floor of a small bird cage. It got worse when he stepped closer. There was what looked like cooked ground beef in one corner of the cage and a tiny dish of water that had been spilled all over. 

“What the fuck,” Hux muttered. He wanted to open the door and pull the bird out, but he knew there was nothing he could do for it. 

“I already called the rehab center,” Phasma said. “The Skywalker Center. They’re sending someone up now.”

“They’re a ways away,” Hux said. He knew the bird could probably hold out for a bit longer, but he hated to make the poor creature wait. From what they could tell, the man had the bird for several days already. If it hadn’t had any proper food in that time, it really could be a serious situation. “You want to check this guy’s kitchen and see if he has any raw meat?”

“Yeah,” she said. While she went into the kitchen, Hux started taking pictures so they had some documentation of the condition the bird was being kept in. Although it was illegal enough to kidnap the bird, Hux hoped he could add some additional charges when they finally arrested the guy.

Phasma returned soon, holding an entire chicken breast in her hand. He opened the door to the cage so Phasma could toss the meat inside. Almost immediately, the hawk started eating, which Hux thought was a good sign. Of course, he usually only dealt with dead animals, so he couldn’t say for certain what he would want to see with the baby hawk.

The hawk had stopped eating well before they heard the sounds of another vehicle pulling up. Realizing it could have just as easily been the homeowner as someone from the rehab center, he and Phasma both pulled their weapons and went back out the door and circled around. Almost as soon as they got to the front of the house, Hux identified the man as Poe Dameron from the Skywalker Wildlife Center and holstered his weapon.

“Dameron,” he said, waving him around to the back of the house. The man jogged over to him, a small kennel in hand. 

“Oh, Agent Hugs! It’s you! What do we have?” 

“A baby hawk of some kind,” Hux said as he led him around to the back of the house. “Improper caging and diet. We found some chicken for it and it ate, so it does have an appetite. Not sure on species or age. I’m guessing around two to three weeks.”

“Well, we’ll take care of it,” Dameron assured him. “I honestly still have trouble telling the difference between hawks and falcons. Don’t tell anyone at the Center I said that, though. They might fire me.”

Hux wasn’t certain if he was joking or not, but he didn’t respond. If he was serious, Hux wondered how he could work around the animals and not know the difference. It hadn’t taken him too long to learn the difference and he hadn’t even needed to know. He lead Dameron to where the hawk was and he opened up the cage.

“I’ll put it in the kennel,” Hux said. He reached inside and easily picked up the bird. Dameron opened the kennel door and Hux gently put the hawk inside and closed the door. 

“I’d love to stay and chat, Hugs, but I got to get this guy back as soon as possible,” Dameron said.

“Yeah, get going.” He’d only briefly met Dameron before and he decided he was a strange man. He hadn’t been certain the first time, but he’d clearly heard the name he’d been called the second time. 

With the baby hawk in safe hands, there wasn’t much else for Hux and Phasma to do. It’d be fairly obvious someone had been inside, so they didn’t even bother trying to disguise the fact, leaving the leftover chicken in the bottom of the cage. They headed back to the car when an idea struck Hux.

“How far is the Skywalker Center from here?” Hux asked, standing outside the car.

“Thirty minutes or so,” Phasma said. Which was about what he’d guessed. It might take some time for Dameron to get back and then for someone at the Center to make it back to the house. 

“Would you mind taking me to that coffee shop just down the road and then dropping me back off here?” he asked as he got inside the car.

“Sure,” Phasma said. “But won’t that delay your paperwork? You love doing paperwork.”

“I don’t love it,” Hux said. “I just enjoy getting things done in a timely manner so I don’t wait until the last minute to do it. The paperwork can wait until tomorrow.”

Phasma drove them five minutes down the road to the small coffee shop Hux had seen on their way in and he bought a coffee for himself and Phasma. She drove back to the house and he got out of the vehicle.

“You got a plan to get back or do you want me to come back out?”

“Don’t worry about it,” he said. “I’ll figure something out.”

“Well, call me if you don’t.”

Phasma took off and Hux found a nice place where he could hide. It was nearly night, which would make it even easier for him to go undetected. Especially if no one expected him to be there.

He knew there was a decent chance of absolutely nothing happening, although if he grew tired of waiting, he could always wait until the homeowner returned and call it in so the arrest could be made. But he was definitely hoping that something more interesting would happen. Given the bad shape the hawk appeared to be in, he would be surprised if the wildlife avenger didn’t take any action on it. Assuming, of course, that he was connected with the Skywalker Wildlife Center and that he was there to see the hawk.

And if he did show up, then he could narrow down his list of suspects even further by finding out just who was at the center when the hawk arrived. He wasn’t expecting anything to happen for a while, so he simply waited. If it wasn’t dark, he could have at least gone through his emails on his phone, but he didn’t need the light giving him away.

There wasn’t much happening for quite a while. There was some traffic on the road, a bit more than he expected for a small town, and of course, the sounds of wildlife. He heard an owl hooting in the distance and realized that it really was getting late. The homeowner hadn’t even returned yet. He might not even be planning on returning anytime soon. Hux hadn’t had time to look into who he was in their rush to save the hawk.

Finally, he saw headlights turning onto the driveway and the sounds of tires over the gravel. Now he could at least manage an easy ride home when they came in to arrest the guy. But he’d wait just a little bit to see if anyone else would show up.

The man was just unlocking his front door when he saw a dark shape coming from the other side of the driveway. He didn’t see anything, but he heard the loud thunk of something striking the man’s truck. The man spun around and before he could react, the dark figure was on top of him, punching and kicking him.

That was enough to confirm Hux’s suspicion that the wildlife avenger was connected with the Skywalker Wildlife Center. And assuming he could get at least Skywalker’s cooperation, he was fairly certain he could determine just who the man was. But first, he needed to make sure that he didn’t kill his suspect. 

He left his hiding spot and shouted at him. Although the lighting was poor, Hux could see that he was wearing all black and a helmet, just like the description given to him by the teenage suspect in his squirrel case. He turned his head when Hux shouted and the suspect apparently wasn’t in bad of condition as Hux had thought - he saw the man on the ground raise his fist and strike his attacker in the helmet, almost knocking it off.

The wildlife avenger turned, but Hux still got a glimpse of long, dark hair underneath the helmet before he turned around and took off running through the forest. He would have liked to follow, but he’d seen all he’d needed to. The man under the helmet was almost certainly Ben Solo. And like he’d mentioned to Phasma, he really wasn’t his problem.

The man bleeding on the ground, however, was. He pulled out his phone and called it in, saying he had the suspect in their hawk rescue case and that he would need to go to the hospital. As much as Hux liked doing things by the book, he had to admit that the man did deserve it after what he’d done to the hawk.

He could always investigate Ben Solo later if he really wanted to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you want some bird facts (and to know why Hux now thinks Poe is an idiot) check out my [Dreamwidth!](https://coragyps.dreamwidth.org/2623.html)


	4. Chapter 4

Hux drove down to the Skywalker Wildlife Center, telling himself that he was following up on the rescued hawk case. And if he happened to run into Ben Solo and get him to admit that he was the one who beat the suspect up, that was just extra. Of course, someone from the Center easily could have sent him what he needed by email. He knew there was no good reason to show up in person.

When he arrived, it appeared to be fairly busy with quite a few cars in the parking lot and he could hear all kinds of sounds - birds making noise, people shouting, some kind of powered equipment. He walked inside the visitor center where nothing really seemed to be going on, so he made his way down to Skywalker’s office. The door was open, but Hux knocked on it to get the man’s attention.

“Oh, Agent Hux,” Skywalker said, looking up from his desk. “What can I do for you?”

“I just wanted to follow up on that baby hawk that was brought in the other day,” Hux said.

“Oh, the little Swainson’s Hawk, sure,” Skywalker said. “I could email you everything if you’d like. You didn’t have to make a special trip out here.”

“I was in the area,” Hux said. “And I’d like to talk to anyone who was on site that night as well, if at all possible. Just in case there’s something that might help in prosecuting this guy. I’m certain we can get a conviction, but I want him to get the maximum penalty.”

“Hmm.” Skywalker seemed to be lost in thought, and Hux wondered if he’d said something the man didn’t like. Although Skywalker’s center had been around forever, Hux really didn’t know much about the man and perhaps he was of a more forgiving nature. “Well, I can tell you who was here and you can talk to them, but everyone is pretty busy so I do ask that you don’t distract anyone from their duties.”

“Of course not,” Hux said. “Thank you.” He wondered if he had done something wrong the last time he talked to the staff since he had simply told him to ask about whatever he wanted then. He didn’t think he’d distracted anyone, although Ben Solo seemed to have been in a bad mood. Maybe Skywalker was just protecting his nephew.

Skywalker wrote down a list of those that were around when the hawk was brought in. He wasn’t at all surprised to see Solo’s name on the list. Deciding to save him for last, he headed to the side of the building where the education animals were kept, hoping to talk to Rey or Finn.

When he found them, it appeared that they were training a fox. Or at least Finn was. He had a little pouch of treats and every now and then, Hux heard a click. He couldn’t actually tell what he was training the animal to do, as it just seemed to be sitting. Rey was standing off to the side and didn’t appear to be actively involved, but Hux decided to wait to talk to her just in case she reported back to her father that he was a distraction.

Finally, after watching for a while, Hux finally saw the fox move and it jumped onto a low table standing next to Finn, and he gave the animal a handful of treats. 

“That’s enough for now,” Rey said, before turning to face Hux. “I didn’t think you’d be back so soon. Or are you actually dating Ben?”

“What? No.” Hux had no idea what she was talking about or where she would have gotten the idea that he was involved with anyone. He hardly even knew the young woman and he couldn’t imagine why she would even think about him dating her cousin. “If the two of you have a moment, I’d like to ask you a few questions.”

“Sure,” Rey said with a shrug. “Finn, you want to put Crystal up first?”

“Yeah,” he said. “I’ll be right back.”

“You were here the night the rescued baby hawk was brought in, right?”

“Uh, well, that happens a lot,” Rey said. “But if you’re talking about the Swainson’s that came in four nights ago, yeah.”

“How long would you say you were here after the hawk arrived?”

“Maybe an hour or so?” Rey shrugged. “I was done with work and Finn was here too and we headed home because he had a lot of homework to do.”

“Did you notice if anyone else left shortly after the hawk arrived?”

“Uh, no.” She shifted uneasily. “It’s a big place though. So I don’t always notice exactly when other people come and go all the time.”

Hux suspected she knew more than she let on, but he was fairly certain that it was Ben Solo and not her or her boyfriend that he was looking for. “Would you say you’re close to your family?”

“What does that have to do with the hawk?”

“I’m wondering if you might be willing to keep secrets for any of your family members. If, for instance, you knew they were getting into trouble of some kind.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said defensively, crossing her arms over her chest. 

“Just exploring every possible angle,” he said. He glanced to the side and saw that Finn had returned and was hanging back. “I’d better talk to him, though.” 

Rey left and Hux motioned for Finn to come over. He’d likely heard the end of his questions to Rey, but that didn’t matter much. He knew Finn wasn’t the person in the helmet. He quickly asked him a very similar set of questions, although he did ask Finn directly what he thought about Solo. When he finished, he thanked him for his time and went in search of the next name on his list.

Poe Dameron was never a hard man to find, especially given his fondness for wearing bright orange. Almost every time Hux had met the man, he seemed to be wearing orange. At least he usually wore a jacket that helped tone down the brightness. 

“Hey, Hugs!” Dameron called when he noticed him.

“My name is Hux,” he corrected.

“Yeah. Hugs.” He grinned and looked him up and down. “You know, now that I see you in daylight, I guess you are a bit cute.”

“What?”

“I mean, I’m already involved with someone. Multiple someones. Definitely no room for anyone else, but if I was single, I’d totally be down, Hugs.”

“What do you think I’m here for, Dameron?”

“No idea,” Dameron said with a shrug. “Hopefully not to ask me out. But if you’re looking for a date, you might want to find Ben. He’d probably go out with you.”

“Now that you mention it,” Hux said, “let’s talk about Ben Solo.” Hux asked him what he thought about Solo and what kind of person he was. Although Dameron kept making comments about his appearance, he did actually answer the questions. Eventually. And it probably wasn’t worth the headache he got from dealing with Dameron.

He found a few other people on his list, and although he did ask a few questions about the hawk, he focused on asking about Solo. Everyone said mostly the same things. He was quiet, kept to himself, not very friendly, but a good worker. As far as anyone could tell, he didn’t really have any friends, except the people he lived with, although no one knew anything about them either. Just that he lived with a bunch of others and they all called themselves “Ren.”

Finally, he ran out of others to speak with and he decided to talk to Solo himself. He couldn’t help but imagine him admitting to what he had done, and Hux tried to think of what he would say to him. Would he tell him good job or suggest that he stop or threaten to turn him in? 

He found Solo in the facility’s medical room. He had just opened a kennel and pulled out something wrapped in a towel when Hux walked in. He turned to face him and frowned, but quickly turned his attention back to what he was doing.

“What do you want?” Solo growled.

“I just want to talk for a bit,” Hux said.

“I don’t want to talk to you,” Solo grumbled. “But if you’re here, might as well make yourself useful. Hold this.”

Solo pushed the towel covered object into Hux’s hands and when he held it, he realized it was moving. Before he could question just what he was holding onto, the towel fell away enough that he could see it was a young bobcat.

“What the fuck?” Having a bobcat pushed into his hands was not what he was expecting, but it finally hit him that he was holding a live animal and he pulled it against his chest to better support it. 

He watched as Solo pulled a clear fluid into a needle and then he walked over to Hux and the bobcat and very gently reached out to the small kitten and pressed the needle under its skin. It made a soft mew when the needle first went in, but it didn’t struggle or cry out. Once the needle was emptied, Solo put it down and then took the kitten back from Hux. He almost thought he heard it purring before he placed it back inside the kennel.

Hux had to admire how careful Solo was with the animal. He’d seen many rehabbers - especially those who were overworked - and they were usually not so gentle. They didn’t harm the animals, but they definitely weren’t so… soft. That was the only word he could think to describe Solo in that moment.

“I wanted to talk to you -”

“I said I didn’t want to!” Solo snapped. Any softness he had was gone, and Hux suspected that was usual for Solo when dealing with people.

“It’ll only take a moment, Mr. Solo.”

“Don’t call me that!”

“Okay. Fine. Kylo Ren, then. I just wanted to ask about a patient you had come in a few nights ago. It was a baby hawk.”

“You’ll have to be more specific,” he grumbled as he left the medical room and went into what looked more like a kitchen. “We have lots of baby hawks coming in here.”

“This one was a nestling,” Hux said. “Stolen from its nest and kept illegally. And improperly. I’m sure you don’t have a lot of cases like that, do you, Ren?”

“No,” he muttered, taking something out of a refrigerator. “What do you wanna know about it?”

“Do you think it’ll make it?”

“Survive? Sure. Most likely.” He walked back out of the kitchen and Hux followed him to a large enclosure. It wasn’t big enough to walk inside, but it was about the size of a table. When Ren opened the door, he saw that the baby hawk in question was inside. Or at least it looked like the same hawk.

“I’m just not sure it’ll ever be released,” Ren said as he put some food into the enclosure. “It’s so young, and my guess is that it was too young when it was taken and is now imprinted to humans. But we’ll just have to wait and see.”

“What happened when it first arrived? Were you taking care of it?”

“Yeah. Well. I helped. My uncle did most of the hard work. Given that he’s the vet.”

“How long did you stay here taking care of it?”

“I don’t know?” he said with a shrug. He walked past Hux again and headed back towards the kitchen.

“Would you say it was closer to ten minutes or an hour?”

“I really don’t remember. I got a lot going on and I don’t usually time myself.”

“Surely you can tell me if you were here for a short or long period of time,” Hux said. “It doesn’t have to be an exact time.”

“I already told you I don’t remember!” Ren nearly shouted at him.

“Okay, Ren,” he said, taking a step back. He remembered what he’d done to the suspect and he’d hate to be on the receiving end of Ren’s fists. The man had a temper, that was certain. Which was more evidence that he was indeed the wildlife avenger.

Before Hux could confront him with the fact that he knew, the kitchen door opened and Finn walked in. Ren turned to glare at him, but he didn’t say anything. He just opened up the refrigerator and pulled out a bag of rats and threw it down on the counter.

“Uh, hey, Kylo,” Finn said nervously. “Um, I know you’re busy and all, but I was wondering if you could help Rey go out on the education program tonight. I would, but I have a lot of homework to get through.”

“I’m busy,” Ren grumbled.

“Yeah, I know,” Finn said, glancing towards Hux. “I can help take care of the rehab animals if that helps any. I just really need to get this paper done and -”

“Fine,” Ren said, cutting him off. “I’ll go do the stupid talk. Don’t fuck up the feeding.”

“I’ve done it before,” Finn said. 

“You’ve fucked it up before too.” Kylo didn’t wait for a response and stormed out of the room. Hux remained in the kitchen for a moment before remembering he wasn’t done speaking to Ren.

“Ren!” he called after him. He stopped and turned to face him and he looked angry enough that Hux almost worried he might hit him. 

“I don’t have time for your questions,” Ren growled at him.

“It’s not a question,” Hux said. “Look, I know about your other activities. The wildlife avenger. It’s fairly obvious that it’s you, so there’s no need to pretend.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“I’m not going to turn you in,” Hux assured him. “Although it does go against my better judgement. However, even if what you’re doing is illegal, I can’t say that I don’t feel like your victims deserve it. That said, I would like to suggest you stop. From what I’ve seen, you’re quite good at what you do here and I’d hate to lose you if you end up getting arrested.”

“I still don’t know what you’re talking about,” Ren said. His face remained impassive and Hux could almost believe him. But he knew it had to be Ren. It all made sense.

“Deny it all you want,” Hux said. “I just wanted to tell you to be careful.”

Ren turned and walked away. Hux decided to not bother trying to talk to him any further. He could always come back, perhaps when he was in a better mood. Not that he had any real reason to talk to him again. For some reason, Hux found that he wanted to talk to Ren more, though. It would be interesting to know the man who had such an unorthodox way of protecting wildlife.

As he drove back to the office, Hux kept telling himself curiosity was the only reason he wanted to get to know Ren.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you want some nerdy maps and fun hawk facts, check out my [dreamwidth post](https://coragyps.dreamwidth.org/3211.html) about this chapter!


	5. Chapter 5

Kylo sat on the floor of his home, almost ready to cry. He couldn’t believe how quickly his life was falling apart. When he’d expressed that to his friends and roommates, or at least the four that were sitting with him, they had told him to stop being so dramatic. He loved his friends - so much that they all went by the same last name - but they were not always the best people to talk to when he was upset.

“It really isn’t that bad,” Gavia Ren said, patting him on the shoulder. The slender woman was the oldest of the group and the one who had helped Kylo start it all. She didn’t look fierce, but Kylo knew better.

“It really is,” Kylo muttered. “He knows, Gav. He knows who I am. And he’s a cop. Who knows what else he’s found out about me.”

Kylo couldn’t help but imagining all the things Hux might know about him. He remembered when the cops had spoken to him as a teenager. Some of those interviews had been recorded. Had Hux listened to them? Had he seen pictures or videos of him as an awkward teenager? Kylo thought he might die of embarrassment. 

“If it’s that big of a deal,” said Lanius Ren, “we can always take care of this guy.”

“No!” Kylo nearly shouted. He knew exactly what Lanius meant by that and he didn’t want Hux hurt at all. Lanius, one of the shortest of the Knights of Ren, was always ready for a good fight. Like Kylo, he had dark hair, but his was kept short. Where Kylo could intimidate others simply with his size, Lanius managed to do the same without the bulk. Even Kylo would be afraid of him if he didn’t know him.

“Why not?” Lanius asked.

“Because… uh…” Kylo struggled to think of a good reason, but he failed. “Because you just can’t.”

“Or maybe it’s because Ky thinks the cop is cute,” Gulo Ren said, snickering. Kylo shot her a betrayed look. He’d accidentally mentioned the “hot cop” around her the first time Hux had come by the Center but she’d promised not to mention anything about it to the others. Although he almost always got along well with the dark-skinned woman, she also liked to talk. Even if it embarrassed everyone else.

“Do you have a picture?” Lanius asked. Before he could respond to that - not that he wanted to - the others all asked him a bunch of questions or offered their opinions on the situation, and Kylo put his head down on his knees, wishing he could disappear.

“Okay,” Gavia said once everyone had calmed down a bit. “Let’s find out if this is actually going to be a problem. Do you remember exactly what he said to you?”

Kylo had replayed their conversation over and over again in his head and he managed to repeat it to the others. He didn’t mention how close Hux had stood to him or how tempted he’d been to reach out and touch that delicate looking skin. Every single time Hux got close to him, he’d found himself unable to think about anything besides touching him.

“What are you worrying about?” That came from Crotalus Ren, a blonde woman who was the youngest of their group. Kylo still had trouble believing she was out of high school. “He doesn’t know anything. He just thinks he does. He doesn’t have any proof.”

“Maybe that’s why he doesn’t want to turn you in,” Gulo said. “Yet.” When she said that, Gavia reached over and slapped her in the back of the head, but that didn’t help Kylo at all. Gulo had already planted the idea in his mind that Hux was going to look into him until he found proof.

“Crotalus is right,” Gavia said. “He’s got no proof, and he doesn’t even seem to realize that it’s not just you. Clearly, he thinks there’s only one person out there doing what we do. So if you’re really worried about it, just lay low for a while, and we’ll take care of things.”

“Yeah,” Lanius said. “Me and Crotalus’ll take care of everything.

Everyone else immediately shouted no, while Crotalus shouted yes. “You two are not allowed out together,” Gavia said. “Who knows what kind of trouble you’d get into. Anyways, Kylo, we can handle things out there. You just let us know where we need to go and who we need to fuck up, okay?”

“It’ll be like a vacation,” Gulo said. “You could use some time to relax. And jack off to thoughts of your new boyfriend.”

“Fuck you,” Kylo muttered. “But thanks, guys.” He really should have understood what the other Knights of Ren had realized almost immediately - Hux really didn’t know as much as he thought he did. One of the reasons they worked together in a group was so that if any one of them was ever a suspect, the others could push suspicion away from them.

“I guess I should go to work,” Kylo said, finally standing up from the floor.

“And make sure you let us know about any assholes,” Gavia said. “Don’t take care of them yourself.”

“And tell your boyfriend we said hi,” Gulo said.

“Invite him over,” Crotalus suggested.

“Or at least ask him out,” Lanius said.

Kylo didn’t respond to any of it, although he could feel his face was warm when he walked out the door. He really didn’t want to think about Hux at all, but since the Knights wouldn’t shut up about him, Kylo didn’t stop thinking about him until he got to work. And once there, he couldn’t help but wonder if he’d show up again. He almost hoped so, but he also dreaded that he might.

In the worst case scenario, Hux would show up with more evidence and arrest him. But maybe he would just follow him around while he was working and ask him more questions. Kylo did like the sound of his voice, although it did make him nervous when he had to answer questions. But maybe he would manage to remain calm the next time. He couldn’t even believe he was thinking about the next time. When he got out of the car, he slammed the door, angry that the only thing he could focus on was the cop.

At least when he started working, he’d be far too busy to think about Hux or anything else. He walked inside and headed into the medical room so he could start preparing the morning medications he needed to give. When he walked inside and looked at the daily checklist, he saw that everyone had been medicated already. Strange, but sometimes Luke had the time in the mornings to do it.

Since he didn’t have to worry about that, he went to make sure that the morning feedings had been done, which they were. Luke must have taken care of those as well. Usually, feeding and medicating took an hour or even longer, so that would make his day go by much faster. And it allowed him to get a head start on cleaning.

He usually started with the birds, who had plastic mats in the bottom of their enclosures that he would take outside to clean off. But when he went to get them, they were already gone. He knew that Luke definitely didn’t have the time to do that. So someone else must have done it. Or someone screwed up somewhere.

Not knowing where else someone would have taken the mats, he went out behind the building where the hose was. He could hear the water as soon as he opened the door and then saw the mats spread all over the large patio. Finn, Rey, and one of their friends whose name Kylo could never remember were out there, spraying them down.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“What’s it look like?” the short woman asked in return. 

“We thought you’d appreciate the help,” Rey said. “But I guess we can go do something else.”

“I didn’t mean it like that. It’s… I just… ugh.” Kylo took a deep breath before trying to continue speaking. He hadn’t planned on talking to anyone so soon and was not prepared for it. “Thanks. I do appreciate it.”

“The three of us have this covered,” Rey said. “You can stay and help if you want, though. Although we haven’t cleaned any of the mammals yet.”

“I’ll go get started on that,” he said. If it had just been Rey, he might have stayed, but he didn’t like being around so many people. And of course, Finn and Rey together had the tendency to make him want to vomit. He’d much rather clean up animal vomit than put up with them.

He started by deep cleaning one of the enclosures that had held a porcupine up until two days ago. It had been released back to the wild, and Kylo needed to make sure the enclosure was ready for the next patient that came in. Although it took time, Kylo really enjoyed completely cleaning out enclosures. Mostly because he really liked the smell of the disinfectant. 

It had taken him the better part of an hour to finish cleaning, and he then started in on the enclosures that currently held mammals. It could sometimes be dangerous since they were wild animals, but the largest thing they currently had was a fox. It was the coyotes that Kylo really hated being in with. That and any large herbivore. Fortunately, they very rarely took in ungulates, which Kylo was grateful for. He’d seen exactly what an elk could do to a person.

While he cleaned, he also had to make sure he was watching the patients. Both for safety and because he needed to take notes on any behavioral changes that might indicate someone was getting better or worse in the health department. It made it more difficult to clean since he had to focus on multiple things, and sometimes, he’d get distracted enough by watching the animal he might forget to clean.

The hardest part for him came while cleaning up after the bobcat kitten that was currently in his care. He was absolutely adorable and Kylo just wanted to pet him. He had to handle him every single day for medical care, but that wasn’t quite the same as gently touching the soft fur. He had to constantly remind himself that he was a wild animal that would hopefully be surviving on his own someday and he didn’t need to become too comfortable with people. In fact, Kylo knew it would be for the best if he was afraid of people.

When he finished cleaning up all the mammal enclosures, he went into the kitchen, hoping he’d left some drinks there and that no one had touched them. He pushed a bag of mice out of the way and saw he did have a few energy drinks in there. Keeping things behind dead mice was usually a good way to prevent anyone else from taking his stuff, which was why he used the animal refrigerator instead of the one meant for use by staff and volunteers.

He’d just opened up the can and took a drink when Rey walked into the kitchen, clothes wet. It was a bit of a warm day. Perhaps she’d done that intentionally to cool off. He waited for her friends to come in, but she shut the door behind her.

“Can I talk to you, Kylo?” she asked.

“Where’s your friends?” He trusted Rey to take care of the rehab animals, but he didn’t want the other two doing anything without supervision. Although he had seen Finn with the education animals and he had to admit he was pretty good with them, the rehab animals were still very different. 

“Finn and Rose had to go to class,” Rey answered. “It’s just us now.”

“Okay,” he said, taking another drink.

“You need to stop beating people up,” she said. “That cop knows it's you. Or at least he's suspicious. It's really obvious it's someone from this Center and dad doesn't need you bringing us that kind of attention.”

“He doesn't know anything,” Kylo muttered. “He just thinks he does. Anyways you don't have to worry about him. I took care of it.”

“What's that supposed to mean?”

“Exactly what it sounds like. Don't worry about it.”

“So your weird roommates are going to be going out and doing it for you?”

Kylo nearly dropped his drink. Although Rey knew about what he did, he didn't realize that she knew about his friends. “What makes you think they have anything to do with that?”

“You guys literally all call yourselves the Knights of Ren and live together like some weird cult. Of course you all do the same weird, illegal shit.”

Kylo didn’t have any way to respond to that. She was right, and she knew it. There would be no point in denying it. For all he knew, one of the Knights had actually said something to her. They’d definitely need to make sure they were more careful when they had visitors over. Although Rey was honestly the only person who ever came there besides perhaps the local delivery drivers. And if she already knew, then it didn’t matter. But if she knew, who else knew?

“You haven’t told anyone else about the Knights, have you?” he asked. He imagined she might have told Finn, which probably wasn’t that bad, but he knew she spent a lot of time with Poe too, and Kylo knew he could never keep anything a secret.

“This might be hard for you to believe, but I don’t really care about your weird friends enough to talk about them with anyone.”

“They’re not weird,” Kylo said, getting annoyed at how she kept saying that.

“Yeah they are. But I didn’t tell my dad or Finn or anyone about you or your friends. Not that it’s that hard to figure out. Your cop friend certainly figured it out quick enough.”

“He’s not my friend.” Kylo muttered. 

“Well, he had a lot of questions about you the other day.”

“I don’t want to talk about him,” Kylo said, turning away because he could feel his cheeks heating up. He almost wanted to ask her just what sort of questions Hux had been asking, but he doubted they had anything to do with whether or not he was single. Still, it was nice to think about - Hux asking everyone at the Center if he was available before asking him out.

“Why not, Kylo?” She walked around trying to get in front of him, but Kylo kept his back to her. That was only successful for so long because she simply decided to jump on his back. 

“Get off of me!” Kylo shouted. He managed to set his drink down while only spilling a little bit of it and then tried to push Rey off of him.

“Not until you tell me all about Hux!”

“Fuck off!”

“Come on Ben! Tell me all about your crush on the hot cop!”

“What the fuck!” Kylo finally managed to pry her off of him and he pushed her away. “I do not have a crush on him or on anyone!”

“Poe already told me and Finn all about it,” she said with a smirk. “I know you like him.”

“I don’t like him!” 

“You should ask him out,” Rey suggested. “I mean, it might be awkward because he suspects you of a crime but he was really interested in you the other day. I bet he’d say yes.”

Kylo didn’t respond to her. He could hardly even admit to himself that he thought Hux was attractive and he definitely wasn’t about to tell anyone else about it. He didn’t even want to think about Hux, but it felt like the world was conspiring against him.

Deciding he’d taken a long enough break, he went back to work, but Rey followed him. While he worked, she talked non-stop about him and Hux and where she thought they should go on their first date and what Kylo liked the most about him. Kylo did his best to tune her out, knowing that engaging her would only make things worse.

Finally, she mentioned that she had to go back to work but before she left, she said, “Hux left his business card with me. I think I’ll give him a call for you. Bet I can get him to come down here.”

Kylo wanted to yell at her and tell her not to do that under any circumstances, but that would only make her more likely to actually do it. He just had to hope it really was just a bluff and she was trying to get a rise out of him. And if not, well, maybe Hux would actually come by. Even if he was nervous every time he was near, he did want to see him again.

He’d had nearly an hour of working in peace when he heard the sound of a vehicle driving up. There was no one else that he knew of scheduled to come in until much later in the day. It very well could have been someone coming in early or someone dropping off an animal, but Kylo didn’t like the thought that someone who wasn’t supposed to be there just showing up.

As much as he didn’t want to see or talk to people, he headed out to the front of the building to see just who was there. Immediately, he regretted it. There was a large white van parked in front of the building, which might have looked like a million other white vans except for the large Peregrine Falcon painted on the side. Kylo immediately recognized it and had no desire to see or speak to the driver.

He immediately turned and headed back inside. He didn’t think that the owner of the van was really supposed to be there, but he also knew he wasn’t a security risk. It certainly wouldn’t be worth his time to bother talking to the guy. 

“Hey, Ben!”

Kylo froze when he heard the familiar voice call out his former name and he cringed. It was too late to get back inside and avoid him at all costs until he left. Slowly, he turned around and faced the man who had walked around the front of the van.

“It’s been a while, kid,” Han said. “I know you’re busy, but you can always call. Your mom too. She says you haven’t spoken to her in a while either.”

“Yeah. Like you said. I’m really busy.” He really had no desire to talk to his father. Not after he’d yelled at him for getting arrested and refused to listen to him. He’d run away from home that night and never went back. That had been years ago, but Kylo could count on one hand the times they’d spoken to each other since.

“I know. But hey, at least I sometimes have an excuse to come down here and see you, right?”

“Uh, yeah. Great. But look. I have some stuff to take care of. If you’re looking for Luke -”

“No,” Han said. “I don’t need to talk to him. I just have some supplies to unload. And really, I was hoping to run into you. I always do, actually. I don’t know if Luke warns you when I’m coming in because you almost never seem to be here when I am. But Rey says you’re almost always here.”

Kylo just shrugged. Luke had never said a word to him about when Han planned on showing up, but Kylo was able to see his calendar. And anytime he saw that Han’s name written down, he made sure he was somewhere else. There had been a few times, however, when he’d shown up unannounced. Like now. And Kylo hadn’t managed to hide in time.

“Anyway, do you wanna help me unload this stuff out of the van?”

“I can’t,” Kylo said. “I’ve got a lot of things to take care of.”

“Yeah, of course,” Han said. Kylo tried not to notice the way Han’s face fell, told himself he didn’t care. Han had his chance to be the father he needed and he’d blown it. He didn’t get to just show up and pretend things were good between them.

Having his father show up was the absolute last thing he’d needed to have happen. With Hux and who knew how many other cops aware of what he was doing, his roommates and coworkers teasing him about how he’d called Hux hot, and the fact that he couldn’t stop thinking about Hux, he didn’t need to deal with a family reunion as well.

Not knowing where else to hide, he simply went into the enclosure he’d cleaned out that morning and sat down on the ground. He just wanted to be alone and take care of the animals. He didn’t want to deal with people - not cops or coworkers or family. Finally, he couldn’t hold back anymore and he started to cry. Leave it to Han Solo to make him feel like a teenager all over again.

Seeing him in person just brought back so many memories that Kylo couldn’t deal with at the moment. Not with everything else going on. He stayed on the floor of the enclosure until he’d managed to stop crying and then waited until he felt like Han must have certainly left.

He didn’t really feel ready to get back to work quite yet, so he decided to go to the other side of the building where the education animals were. Since they were far more used to people and would never be released back to the wild, Kylo could actually sit with them and talk to them if he wanted to. Some would even let themselves be touched. Besides the Knights of Ren, the animals really were his only friends, and a friend was exactly what he needed.

Unfortunately for him, Han hadn’t left yet and when he walked into the hallway, he saw that Han was in a storage closet and of course, he turned around right when he walked by.

“Ben,” Han said.

“That’s not my name anymore,” Kylo said. “It hasn’t been since you told me to leave.”

“Kid, that’s not…” Han sighed. “I don’t think this is the time or place to talk about that. But maybe we need to. Sometime. I do love you. I hope you know that. And I miss you. I know things haven’t been great between us, but I hope that someday, you might be able to forgive me. And I know there’s things I need to do too, but I’m willing to try.”

“Okay.” Kylo really didn’t know what else to say to all that. He hadn’t expected that from his father. The last few times he’d seen him, he’d just tried to pretend like everything was perfectly fine between them.

“I know you might not want this, but… would it be all right if I gave you a hug, Kylo?”

Kylo was so shocked that Han had used his name that he only managed to nod. Han stepped forward and pulled Kylo into his arms and patted his back, For a moment, it was almost like he was a kid again and his dad was comforting him because the kids at school had been bullying him again. But now, he was much taller than his father and he didn’t even know why he’d been crying.

“If you ever want to talk, Kylo, you can always call me, okay?”

Kylo nodded, mumbling about needing to go do something and then he took off as quickly as he could. He felt like he might cry again and he absolutely could not do that, not in front of Han. He followed through on his plan to spend some time with the educational animals and he went inside the enclosure where the Turkey Vulture named Persephone lived. She was one of his favorites.

Currently, she had her back to a window and her wings spread wide, warming up in the sun pouring through the window. Kylo sat on the ground and watched her, feeling much better just by watching the bird.

Eventually, Persephone finished sunning herself and she hopped down from her perch and joined him on the ground, slowly walking her way towards him. When she reached him, she immediately started pulling on his shoelaces and untied them. Kylo couldn’t help but smile as she played with any bit of loose clothing she could get her beak on. 

Suddenly, the day didn’t seem too terrible after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have a blog post for this chapter all about the Knights of Ren and Turkey Vultures which you can check out [here](https://coragyps.dreamwidth.org/3356.html).


	6. Chapter 6

There were some types of cases that Hux hated above all others. Even more so than the minor incidents where people just got a slap on the wrist. At least in those cases, the perpetrator could be identified. But poisoning cases were another beast all together and Hux hated them. It was almost impossible to determine the person who did it and even if they could, there was no way to prove malicious intent to harm protected wildlife. Because the poison was perfectly legal, there was absolutely nothing that could be done.

Even though every agent hated working the poison cases, they all had to do them every now and then simply to get them off the list of open cases. Even if all that happened was getting the database updated to say the case was investigated. Since it really was a waste of time, Hux decided that he’d look into the case while Phasma would look for a case that might actually lead somewhere.

He knew that some agents would half ass a poisoning case since everyone knew nothing would come of it, but Hux could never bring himself to sign off on something that he didn’t actually look into. He never knew when he might be questioned about a past case and he’d much rather just do things properly instead of having his abilities questioned at a later date.

So he read his file on the fox that had died as a result of poisoning. From the necropsy results, Mitaka had determined that it had most likely eaten mice that had been poisoned rather than the poison itself. Which was basically how it always happened.

He called the necropsy lab, but there was no answer. Likely, Mitaka was busy or maybe he had the chance for a rare break. Usually, Hux would just call back later, but he wanted to wrap the case up as quick as possible and decided to head downstairs. He could either talk to him in person or look up the information he needed on his own.

When he arrived, he immediately saw - and smelled - the reason Mitaka had been unable to answer the phone. He was wearing a set of the lab’s coveralls and currently had his arms inside of a pronghorn.

“Sorry, Hux,” Mitaka said as he pulled something out of the animal and set it down on a tray. “I’m a little busy at the moment.”

“I can see that,” Hux said. “You mind if I take a look through your files? I’m working a poisoning case and I’d really hate to make you waste your time with it too.”

“Go ahead,” Mitaka said. “I feel like I’ve seen quite a few poisonings lately. More so than usual.”

Hux went over to Mitaka’s computer and went into the database. Although he could have accessed the database from his own computer, he had to use Mitaka’s to have instant access to his necropsy files. Normally, he’d have Mitaka pull the information and send it all to him, but it wasn’t the first time Hux didn’t want to wait and had used Mitaka’s computer himself.

He started by narrowing down his search by both county and by cause of death. His next step was then to see how many others happened to be in the same general area as his case. What he saw was shocking - owls, foxes, raccoons, squirrels, a porcupine, and a badger had all come in from the same area having been poisoned. Then he looked up the animals that hadn’t been necropsied yet from that area and saw that there were eight more that were suspected poisonings.

That was definitely not a good sign. Suddenly, his run of the mill, waste of time poisoning case became a much higher priority. Although he couldn't arrest the person responsible, he could at least let them know what their actions were doing and hopefully convince them to switch to a different method of pest control.

“Hey, Mitaka,” Hux said, walking back out to where Mitaka was collecting tissue samples from the pronghorn. “When you got a moment, I’m going to need a confirmation of poison in eight animals. I’ve already flagged them. I’m sorry to add so much more work, but this looks like it might be a very serious case.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Mitaka said. “It’s important and it doesn’t really take that long to confirm poisoning anyway.”

“Thanks, Mitaka.” 

Hux headed back upstairs. Although he would need to wait for the results before he could take action, he could at least see if he could figure out where the poison was coming from. That way, when he did get the necessary results, he’d at least be ready to move.

Usually, it was hard to pinpoint just who was using poison if it was in a residential area. With some investigation, the poisoner could be found out, but it was very rarely worth the effort. Instead, the department just distributed pamphlets about better pest control methods and the effects of poison. In this case, however, Hux wanted to speak directly to whoever was responsible so he could make sure they knew exactly what they’d done. Hux wasn’t above making someone feel bad, even if it was accidental.

Hux was prepared to lurk at hardware stores to see who was buying poison and roam the streets of a neighborhood, on his own time if necessary, but when he pulled up the coordinates of where his fox had been found, he saw that there was almost nothing out there. With only a handful of homes in the area, it might be quite simple to figure out who the poisoner was.

Hux added to coordinates of every other poisoned animal from that area, including the eight Mitaka hadn’t necropsied yet. There was one house in particular that seemed to be the center of it all. Of course, the animals could have been poisoned elsewhere and all of them simply wandered the same direction, but Hux doubted it.

Now all he had to do was wait until Mitaka had the necropsy results and he could go talk to the owner of the home. Since Mitaka was working on a large project already, he knew it might take some time before he had his results.

He prepared a kit that consisted of an educational pamphlet and some free mouse traps so he would have it ready when he spoke to the poisoner, then he briefed Phasma on the situation.

“So it’s actually turning out to be interesting,” she said. “That’s a lot of animals already poisoned and who knows how many haven’t been picked up by someone. You want to go pick this guy up?”

“I’m still waiting on necropsy results,” Hux said. “And it’s not like he’s done anything illegal.”

“We have plenty already,” Phasma said. “Might as well go talk to him now.”

She was right. It didn’t really matter if Hux had evidence for twelve animals or twenty killed by poison around the property. It was still a large number. Still, he liked to have all the information. And it would mean quite a few poisoning cases would be taken care of. But that didn’t mean they couldn’t go talk to the person right away and just finish up all the paperwork when the necropsy results came in.

“Let me just tell Mitaka that the necropsies are lower priority,” Hux said. “No sense in him doing overtime tonight if he doesn’t need to.” He was fairly certain that Mitaka would still be working on the pronghorn - and would be for quite some time - so he sent him an email. 

“Let’s go then,” Hux said, grabbing the pamphlet and mouse traps from his desk, as well as his keys. “I’ll drive.”

It took them nearly an hour to get out to the property, and Hux spent most of it wondering if he should just talk to the homeowner about not using poison or if he should actually look for proof before saying anything.

“Too bad you’re not Ben Solo,” Phasma said when Hux voiced his concerns to her. “Or Kylo Ren or whatever it is he calls himself. Then you could just punch the guy.”

“Yes, Phasma. Such a shame that I operate within the law.”

When they arrived, Hux saw that he didn’t need to worry about knowing for certain if he was talking to the right person. Sitting right outside the garage were three large buckets of rat poison. He couldn’t imagine why anyone would need so much, although that probably explained why so many animals were found poisoned. Phasma noticed it as well and they looked at each other before walking up to the door and knocking. They both knew it was going to be interesting.

“Fucking cops,” the man who opened the door said as soon as he saw them. “You can’t come in without a warrant!”

“Don’t worry, sir,” Phasma said. “We don’t want to come in. We just want to talk to you.”

“I don’t have to talk to you! And I won’t! Not without my lawyer!”

“Sir,” Hux said. “You’re not in any trouble and you’re not under investigation. We’re with the Wildlife Crimes Division and we have some concerns about your use of poison.”

“I ain’t doing anything illegal!”

“We’re aware,” Hux said. “We just wanted to ask you to consider using other methods of pest control, since the poison has killed at least twelve other animals including owls, foxes, and badgers.”

“I don’t give a fuck about some stupid badgers!”

“We just ask that you try some other methods,” Hux said as he held out the mouse traps. “There’s some information there as well about -”

Hux didn’t get to finish because the man slapped the mouse traps out of his hand. “Fuck you trying to tell me what to do! I’ll kill the fucking rats however the fuck I want and if some other stupid fucking animals get killed too then good riddance! I don’t need them around fucking my property up either! Or you! Now get out of here before my lawyer hears about this!”

Hux and Phasma returned to the car, not even bothering to pick up the mouse traps. The man decided to smack them out of his hand, so it was now his problem to clean up. Hux had dealt with some difficult people and people who were apathetic about what their actions did, but he’d never come across someone who cared so little about the lives of others.

“That went well,” Phasma grumbled as they started driving away. “What a fucking piece of shit.”

“Yeah.” Hux was silent for a while as he realized just how much damage that one careless man could cause. “Fuck. He’s just going to keep killing everything, isn’t he? And we can’t stop him.”

“Not unless he kills an endangered species,” Phasma said. “And if he does, we’ll at least have record of his indifference.”

“It shouldn’t have to get that bad,” Hux said. “We should be able to stop him before it gets to that point.”

“Yeah, well, like you said. You operate within the law. Which means that we can’t do anything. We just have to document what we can.”

Hux remembered the exact context in which he mentioned that he only operated within the law. He’d never had a case that made him want to take things into his own hands before. For a moment, he wondered if that’s how Kylo Ren felt all the time. Kylo Ren, who ran around beating up anyone who harmed wildlife intentionally. What would he think of that man’s attitude?

He knew that he should absolutely not tell Kylo Ren anything about that man. That would make him an accessory to the crime if he gave information to someone in order for them to engage in illegal activities. But at the same time, no other law enforcement seemed to be tracking Ren at all. If he hadn’t been caught yet, how likely was it that he would suddenly be caught the one time Hux provided information?

It was dangerous to get involved with Kylo Ren. Hux knew that. But at the same time, Ren was likely the only hope for the animals that lived in that area. It wasn’t like he could post notices telling wildlife to stay away or even just round everything up and move them. If he did nothing, which was the only thing he could legally do, countless animals would die.

By the time he made it back to the office, he’d made up his mind. There was only one thing he could do. He made an excuse to Phasma and took off again, heading for the Skywalker Wildlife Center, ignoring the voice that told him it was the worst idea he’d ever had. He just hoped Ren was actually there. If not, he could probably leave a message with his cousin, who Hux thought was aware of Ren’s activities.

When he arrived, he found Rey first, along with Finn and Dameron. Hux knew that Rey and Finn were dating, but he wondered if they were also dating Dameron. The few brief times he’d seen the three of them together made him wonder, but he wasn’t there to talk about relationships and who was dating who. He just kept it in mind, because if they were dating Ren's cousin, they might also be aware of what he was doing.

After getting directions from Rey, Hux found Ren easily although he hadn’t quite expected him to smell like he did. He wasn’t sure what was on his shirt, but it smelled of old fish. If he had to guess, one of the animals had thrown up on him.

“What are you doing here?” Ren demanded to know, even as his face started turning red.

“I need to talk to you about something,” Hux said. “Are we alone?”

“I haven’t done anything,” Ren insisted. “And you probably shouldn’t be here.”

“I really need you to listen to me,” Hux said. “It’s about your activities.”

“Seriously, man! I have no idea what you’re talking about!”

“I don’t care that you beat the shit out of people, Ren! In fact, I need you to go take care of someone for me.”

“I don’t do that!” Ren growled. He stepped closer and Hux thought he could make out pieces of fish on Ren’s shirt. “I bet I even have alibis for whenever the last incidents were. So leave me alone.”

Ren started to walk away, but Hux really needed him to listen and he grabbed his arm. When he touched him, Ren totally froze, looking shocked and then embarrassed and then finally, angry.

“What are -” 

“Listen, Ren,” Hux cut him off. “A lot of animals are going to die unless you do something. There’s a man putting down who knows how much poison on his property and we’ve recovered twenty dead animals already. He has absolutely no intention of stopping, and legally, there’s nothing we can do. Maybe you’re not the wildlife avenger, maybe you are. I really don’t care as long as the information gets to someone who will do something about it.”

Ren didn’t say anything, but he nodded. Hux reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of paper on which he’d scrawled the address and handed it to Ren. He looked at it, but remained silent.

“I know you have no reason to trust me,” Hux said, “but we both care about wildlife. I can’t stand the thought of this guy getting away with it. He doesn’t even care that he’s killing everything out there. He seems happy about it, in fact. So I really hope you, or whoever, gives him what he deserves.”

Ren started to walk away again, and Hux let him leave. But he couldn’t resist making one last comment. 

“Ren!” The larger man turned to look at him. “You might want to change your shirt. That smell will give you away.”

He saw Ren’s face turning a deeper shade of red as he quickly disappeared out of sight. He knew he probably shouldn’t have said it, but he did like seeing Ren get flustered and embarrassed. Which seemed to be every time he spoke to him. Hux would never admit that it was somewhat cute, but it did make him smile just a little bit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know y'all need some animal facts, so I got some for you here on [dreamwidth](https://coragyps.dreamwidth.org/3686.html)


	7. Chapter 7

Kylo couldn’t believe that Hux had shown up again. And of course, he just had to be there right after he’d been feeding an Osprey that had decided to get fish parts all over him. It was disgusting and slimy and smelled pretty bad, although Kylo had never really cared too much what the animals got on him. But he didn’t want to be covered in fish guts while talking to Hux.

And of course, Hux had noticed. It would be hard not to, but Kylo couldn’t believe he’d pointed it out. Fortunately, he’d managed to get away before Hux could embarrass him even further. Because seeing him covered in fish guts, calling him out on it, and actually touching him had been too much for Kylo. 

Once he changed his shirt, he took a look at the paper Hux had given him. The address was in a town nearly an hour away, but he and the Knights had travelled further, especially if someone really deserved it. And from what Hux had said, this guy certainly did deserve it.

Kylo hated poison and had seen far too many patients come in that had accidentally eaten poison or eaten another animal that had been poisoned. And so many of them had to be euthanized because there was nothing they could do to save them. He knew that many people didn’t think about the consequences of poison, but from what Hux had said, this man just didn’t care.

He very much wanted to hurt him, let him know that he couldn’t treat animals that way. But at the same time, he had to consider the possibility that it was a trap. After all, Hux was a cop and cops didn’t just go around giving out addresses saying to beat people up. But when they suspected you were guilty of a crime, they did try to catch you in the act.

Only a few years ago, Kylo knew he would have ran out on his own and fought the guy. But he had his Knights to help him. He wasn’t alone. And if they suspected a trap, then they wouldn’t go. 

Kylo drove home and saw that all of the Knights were already there. Two of them - Zephius and Crotalus - lived elsewhere but still spent most of their time with the others at their house. And they would always be welcome to move in if they wanted, although they didn’t have any more spare bedrooms. But Kylo wouldn’t mind sharing with his friends that were really more of his family than just friends.

“I need to talk to everyone,” Kylo said when he walked into the living room. He had their attention immediately and he explained to everyone about how Hux had shown up and given him the address, saying that the guy there was poisoning animals and didn’t care.

“Okay, first of all,” Gavia said. “I say we fuck this guy up. But, Kylo. Did you kiss Hux?”

“What? No!”

“Why not?” That came from Sygnus, who was usually one of the calmer Knights. “Don’t you really like this guy?”

“I don’t! I mean, that’s not the point, okay? I just don’t know if you guys think it’s a good idea to use the information he gave us or if you think it might be a trap.”

“Could be,” Gulo said. “But on the chance it’s not, I really want to get this guy.”

“I am a little suspicious,” Zephius said. “Why would a cop help you? Especially one that you know is investigating you. On the other hand, he’s a wildlife cop. He doesn’t investigate our kind of crime. So maybe he’s actually trying to help. We all know how frustrating it is to see hurt animals and not be able to do anything about it. That’s why we’re all here.”

“Zeph’s got some good points,” Gavia said. “And there’s no harm poking around, right? Maybe we get up there and see something that shows it’s clearly a trap and we leave. The worst they could get us on is trespassing.”

The others agreed - they didn’t want to take the chance that it was legitimate and do nothing. Although they usually went out solo or in pairs, they realized that it could be dangerous if the cops were there. If there were more of them out there, it might make it harder for the cops to catch them all, especially if they expected a single person.

Although Kylo knew he was not supposed to be going out, if Hux had given him correct information, then he probably didn’t have to worry about being investigated by him. If it was a trap, then Kylo knew he was putting himself at risk, but even acting on the information revealed his identity, so he insisted that he go along with the group.

They eventually decided that along with Kylo, Sygnus, Lanius, and Crotalus would confront the guy, while Gulo would act as a look out and make sure that no cops showed up after they did. Gavia and Zephius would stay at the house and be ready to bail the others out of jail if necessary.

Gulo arrived on the scene first while the others waited in a nearby gas station parking lot. Gulo let them know that she didn’t see any signs of cops in the area, and they rode their motorcycles the rest of the way up. They split up and parked them in different areas and then walked the rest of the way, meeting up in the front of the house.

Immediately, Kylo could see that Hux’s information was at least good, although it didn’t mean it wasn’t also a trap. He could see a man with a large container of rat poison that he was throwing around his house. Worse, Kylo could see that he was baiting chunks of meat with it as well. Which was going to attract far more than just rodents.

No longer concerned about whether or not it might be a trap, Kylo sprung into action, running towards the man. The others were right behind him. Crotalus, being the fastest of the Knights, passed Kylo and hit the guy first, punching him and sweeping his legs out from under him.

The others were on him within seconds, and although he tried fighting back, there was nothing he could do against four of them and his efforts soon turned to trying to get away and then simply trying to defend himself. Kylo and Sygnus stopped when the man stopped moving - they didn’t want to kill the guy. They pulled the other two off of him, as they would keep going.

“Think about this next time you decide to poison something,” Kylo growled. “We’ll come back if we have to.”

Kylo saw Lanius looking at the bucket of poison and then back at the man who was slowly crawling towards the house. He then looked to Crotalus and the two apparently had the same idea. Crotalus grabbed the man and held him while Lanius took the poison. He started shoving it down the man’s throat.

“You don’t think that’ll kill him, do you?” Sygnus asked.

“Shouldn’t,” Kylo said. “He’ll just be sick for a while. Unless he’s stupid and doesn’t go to the hospital. But they’ve certainly made him eat enough of it.”

They pulled Lanius and Crotalus off the guy for the second time. As Kylo was pulling Lanius away, he managed to aim a kick at the guy’s head and he fell to ground and stopped moving. Once Crotalus was under control, Sygnus knelt down next to the guy and checked him out.

“He’s still alive,” Sygnus said. “You guys get out of here. I’ll call an ambulance for him, but it might be best if we’re well out of the area by then.”

Kylo didn’t argue. He knew given the remote location and the extent of the injuries they’d inflicted, there wasn’t much choice but to call an ambulance themselves. Kylo might have said to leave him out there for the animals to finish off, but since Lanius had put so much poison in him, he would hate for more animals to be harmed.

Kylo, Crotalus, and Lanius took off. He had no idea how long Sygnus would wait until making the call, so they ran through the surrounding forest and returned to their motorcycles. Because they had parked in different areas, Kylo was alone when he made it back to the main road. He didn’t like not knowing where everyone was, but he knew he couldn’t hang around the area. The others knew what they were doing, and Kylo just had to trust that everyone would make it home safely.

\---

Ever since they had acted on Hux’s information, Kylo was expecting the cops to show up and arrest him, and maybe the others. Hux didn’t know who they were, so Kylo assumed he’d be the only one in trouble. But it had been days and he’d heard nothing. There were no cops waiting for him at work or at home. 

Kylo was finally starting to relax - maybe Hux had really meant it when he said he just wanted the guy stopped. It was hard to believe considering how he’d kept trying to get him to confess and bothering him and his coworkers. But Kylo had seen what the guy was doing and maybe Hux saw too and realized that Kylo’s way was the only option.

He’d just finished seeing if one of his patients - a Turkey Vulture - had the full ability to fly. The bird looked good, although their flight cage didn’t allow him to see how well it could soar. Still, Kylo did the best he could and determined that the bird would be able to get back to the wild. Unfortunately, it wasn’t as simple as opening the cage door and letting it go. He - or most likely Poe - would have to take it closer to where it had been brought in from.

That meant Kylo had to go and capture the vulture from the flight cage. Because he wanted to make sure the bird would find food in the wild, he’d put a dead rat in there for the bird to find. Which it did. So when Kylo went to catch it, the bird had a nice full crop when it decided it wanted nothing to do with him and threw up all over him. Kylo almost threw up himself after smelling that, but he managed to get the vulture into a transport container. 

Because of the terrible smell, Kylo had to change his shirt. There was a reason he kept so many sets of spare clothes at the Center. Fortunately, it was only his shirt that had been vomited on, so he was only out one shirt. The smell was so bad that Kylo never bothered trying to save his clothes when a vulture threw up on him. He just threw them out. Or burned them.

After making sure that none of his other clothes needed to be changed, he reached for his clean shirt that he’d had sitting on a chair. As he did so, he heard the sound of the door opening. No one else was supposed to be there, so he went to see who it might be. He knew Poe was hanging around and so was Luke, so he expected to see one of them. What he didn’t expect was Hux to be walking towards him.

He swore and briefly considered running, but there was no where for him to go. Then, his brain caught up with him and he realized Hux was alone. If he was coming to arrest him, he would have others with him. Then he remembered he hadn’t put a clean shirt on yet. He was just standing there, bare chest on display and he knew it must have been wishful thinking because he thought for sure that Hux was looking right at his chest.

“Uh,” Kylo didn’t know what to say. “Sorry. I, um, a vulture. It threw up on me.”

“I imagine that happens a lot here,” Hux said. He was definitely looking at him. Kylo quickly fumbled for his shirt and threw it on. “You put it on backwards.”

“I know,” Kylo said. “I meant to do that.”

Hux gave him a look that clearly said he didn’t believe him, but he didn’t press the issue. “I just wanted to thank you. For what you did. And your friends, too, I suppose. I didn’t realize there was more than just you. But anyway. Thanks. That was probably the only thing that would have made him stop.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Kylo said. He knew there was no point in denying it anymore, but he couldn’t help himself. Hux was a cop and he couldn’t just admit to him that he was the one beating people up.

“Of course you don’t. I know I probably shouldn’t even be talking to you. I definitely shouldn’t condone your actions, but I couldn’t stand the thought of him getting away with it. Anyway, if you need anything from me, here’s my card.”

Hux reached into the front pocket of his pants and handed him a business card. Kylo took it, still not quite sure what was happening. He really thought Hux would be arresting him, not thanking him. Maybe he’d gotten the cop all wrong. 

“Remember, you can call for any reason.”

He left and Kylo finally relaxed, realizing he really wasn’t getting arrested. Once Hux was gone, he looked at the card and saw that it had his work and cell number listed, as well as his first name. Armitage. What kind of name was that? Not that it really mattered, because he’d seen the way Hux had looked at him. He definitely hadn’t imagined that.

Although he knew it would be a terrible idea to be involved with a cop in any way, Kylo couldn’t help but smile at the thought that maybe Hux liked him too. If nothing else, he definitely at least liked the way he looked without a shirt on. 

He was still smiling, thinking about Hux, when Poe walked over. He almost didn’t even notice the other man at first since he was so wrapped up in his thoughts about Hux.

“Well, I guess your boyfriend found you,” Poe said.

Immediately, Kylo’s smile vanished. “He’s not my boyfriend.”

“Yeah, well, he could be if you ask him out. Hey, did you know your shirt’s on backwards?”

Kylo grabbed the nearest thing to him which just happened to be his ruined shirt and threw it at Poe. He made a face, obviously smelling the vulture vomit, and then left. At least vulture vomit was good for getting coworkers away from him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For more fun wildlife facts, check out my [dreamwidth post](https://coragyps.dreamwidth.org/4050.html) for this chapter.


	8. Chapter 8

It was turning out to be a rather slow day at work. There hadn’t been any new major cases that had come up, so almost everyone was simply working on the backlog of the minor stuff that would likely never be prosecuted but they still needed to investigate. That meant lots of grumbling since most everyone hated that sort of thing, but Hux didn’t really mind it. Of course, he and Phasma had a system worked out where she did the investigative work and he handled the paperwork.

There was something about the paperwork that Hux found somewhat soothing. Maybe it wasn’t as exciting as chasing people down and arresting them, but Hux really didn’t like that part anyway. Mostly, he liked the feeling of wrapping a case up. And since Phasma could plow through some of the minor cases, he got that feeling a lot.

“So, Hux,” Phasma said as she dropped her latest file on his desk. “I’ve noticed you’ve been going out to the Skywalker Center a lot recently. Any reason why?”

“Just following leads, Phasma,” he said, not looking up at her.

“Leads. Like maybe a lead on who you’re going to ask out on a date?”

Hux dropped his pen but quickly picked it up and continued writing as if nothing had happened. “You know exactly what I mean by leads.”

“Yeah, I think you have a thing for Ben Solo so you keep going out there to see him. You always seem happier when you come back from there.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Hux said, remembering that Ren had said those exact words to him. He also remembered how Ren had his shirt off when he’d seen him last and how he’d very much appreciated the view.

“See? You’re blushing! I knew you liked him!”

“I am not blushing,” he insisted, although he knew that was a lie. Still, he would never admit to Phasma that he’d just been thinking of a shirtless Ren. “And even if I was attracted to him, which I’m not, he’s certainly not my type. He’s a criminal, Phas. I don’t really have the desire to date, and I’m certainly not going to start dating someone like that.”

“Hmm, yeah, you like him.” Phasma returned to her desk, leaving no room for argument. Not unless he wanted to have that discussion loud enough for others to hear. And Hux would certainly not do that. Phasma could think whatever she wanted, but nothing would ever happen between him and Ren.

Hux returned to his work, making sure all the reports were filled out correctly. Even if the cases were boring, it at least made the paperwork easy to fill out. He was almost zoning out when his phone rang and he jumped before picking it up.

“Agent Hux,” he answered.

“Hux,” Director Sloane’s voice came over the line, “I got a more exciting case for you and Phasma. Reports of a goose having been shot just came in. Sounds like the goose is still on scene and alive. You ready for the address?”

“Yeah,” he said, grabbing a clean sheet of paper. Sloane gave him the address and he scribbled it down. He hung up the phone and looked over at Phasma, who was watching him.

“Something come up?” she asked, standing up.

“Got a case,” he said. “You better drive.”

Phasma grabbed her keys and they headed to her car. As usual, she drove on the reckless side, but if the goose was still alive, it would need help. Also, Hux hoped that they might be able to talk to witnesses or even the shooter if they got there quick enough.

Sloane sent him a text, letting him know a rehabber was also en route to the crime scene to pick up the goose. Hux couldn’t help but think that the Skywalker Wildlife Center was the closest one to the scene and he wondered if it would be Ren. He doubted it. As far as he knew, Dameron was the one who did almost all of the animal pick ups.

“So you really don’t think you and Solo could ever work out?” Phasma asked. “I mean, sure he’s a criminal, but you also helped him in his criminal activities.”

“What do you mean?”

“Hux, you really think I haven’t figured out that you’re the one who gave him the info on that poison guy? I saw how pissed you were about that. And then the wildlife avenger kicks his ass. Of course it was you. Because I also know that you know it’s Ben Solo.”

Hux knew he should have been more careful. And probably shouldn’t have said a word to Ren at all about the poisoner. Of course Phasma could figure it out. And if she could, there were likely many others who could connect the dots. Including Rae Sloane. That could very easily cost him his job.

“I haven’t told anyone,” Phasma said. “Don’t worry. I think you did the right thing. Even if it makes you an accessory. And don’t tell me if you did or didn’t do anything because I don’t want to know. Just in case someone else figures out about you and Solo.”

“His name is Ren,” Hux muttered.

“So you do like him!” Phasma said loudly. 

“How is calling him by his preferred name evidence that I like him?”

“I don’t know. The fact that you even care to correct me about it I guess. You can tell me if you like him. It’s not like I’d tell anyone else. Well, maybe Mitaka.”

“Phasma, I promise you that I do not have any interest whatsoever in Ren or anyone else. Can we please stop talking about him?”

They didn’t have time to change subjects because they arrived at the crime scene. It was a park and Phasma drove up on the sidewalk towards a large group of people that were gathered around. Phasma immediately got out of the car and started asking people to stay out of their way and to leave the area if they were not witnesses to the shooting.

While Phasma worked on crowd control, Hux opened up the trunk of the car and pulled out a large net. It wasn’t an ideal size for something the size of a goose, but it would work. It wasn’t as if there were any other options. Not unless Hux wanted to try grabbing it with his bare hands.

The goose, of course, was panicking. Not that Hux could blame it considering it had been shot and was now surrounded by people. That meant it wasn’t going to be easy to catch it. He almost wished he was the one who was dealing with the crowd, but no matter how nasty any particular animal was, it would still be better than people. The only downside was that Hux knew he was about to get very dirty. He just hoped no one filmed it.

He went after the goose, trying his best to net it, but everytime Hux thought he had it, the bird would slip away from him. It couldn’t fly, and Hux could very clearly see the injured wing, but it could still move around much better than Hux had expected. Eventually the goose ran into some bushes where the net would be useless, so Hux decided to sit and wait, hoping the goose would come out. Or maybe it would at least calm down a little so it might be easier to pick up.

After a few minutes, Hux saw someone approaching. He was about to tell them to get out of the area and ask Phasma why she’d let someone come towards the goose when he saw that it was Kylo Ren. He almost asked what he was doing there when he noticed the cardboard box in his hand. Obviously, he’d been sent to get the goose.

“It’s pretty agitated but it’s in those bushes,” Hux warned him, pointing to where the goose was hiding. “Probably has a broken wing.”

“I can get it,” Ren said. He put the cardboard box down and pulled a large towel out and started to slowly walk towards the bushes.

“Did you want the net?” Hux asked. He didn’t think a towel would work any better than a net. And he’d have to get much closer to it in order to get the towel on it. 

“Don’t need it,” Ren muttered. He crept closer and closer to the goose and Hux could see it moving around, but it didn’t take off running. Hux heard Ren speaking very softly to the goose although he couldn’t make out what he was saying.

Every time Ren took a step closer, Hux expected the goose to take off running and he had his net ready in case it came in his direction. But although he could see the goose was nervous, it never took off and Ren threw the towel over it and wrapped it up.

Ren picked up the bird and Hux could see its feet moving as if it was trying to run, but Ren put an arm under it and it seemed to settle down. Hux couldn’t believe what he was seeing. That goose had made him chase it all over the place, yet it let Ren just walk up and pick it up. Maybe it was simply tired of running. But Hux suspected he wouldn’t have been able to pick it up if he’d approached it.

“How’d you do that?” Hux asked as Ren put the goose inside the box.

“Catch it?” Ren just shrugged. “You just gotta make sure the animal knows you’re not gonna hurt it.”

That explained absolutely nothing, but Hux couldn’t help but admire how well Ren handled the animal. He’d seen what he’d done to the poisoner, the reports on the others he’d beaten up. Hux knew exactly how violent Ren could be. But he could also be incredibly gentle. He’d seen it at the Center and now again with the goose. And Hux couldn’t help but wish he’d turn those gentle hands on him. He quickly pushed that thought out of his mind. He couldn’t get involved with Ren.

“I’m gonna take the goose back to the Center,” Ren said as he started walking back towards his car, and Hux walked with him. “Did you need any help here, though?”

“No, I think we’ve got this under wraps,” Hux said. “My partner and I will finish up our investigation here.”

“Your partner is the tall lady, right?” 

“Yes, Phasma. We’ll need to get a report on the goose’s injuries. I know you could just send it over, but do you think I could stop by the Center to get an update on it?”

“Uh, yeah, sure.” Ren glanced down at the box in his hands. “Yeah. I guess you can come by and see the goose if you want.”

“I’ll stop by after we wrap up our investigation here,” Hux said as they arrived at Ren’s car. “Or if it’s too late, then I’ll stop by tomorrow morning. Will you be there?”

Ren looked at the ground and shrugged. “I guess. I don’t know. Probably.”

Ren put the box in the backseat of his car and closed the door. He paused before opening the driver’s door. “Uh, Hux? Um, it was nice to see you.”

“Thank you for your help, Ren. I’ll see you soon.”

He got into his car and Hux watched Ren as he drove away. He couldn’t believe he’d come up with such a flimsy excuse to see him. Surely Ren had seen right through that. But he hadn’t said no, so maybe Ren wanted to see him again too. 

Hux once again had to remind himself that no matter what he thought of Ren, he could only look. Not unless he stopped his criminal activities, because unless he did, he would get caught one day and Hux couldn’t get caught with him. But he could look all he wanted.

Once the goose was on its way to the rehab center, Hux found Phasma to see just where she was with her investigation. He’d thought she’d probably still be talking to witnesses since most people liked to believe they had something important to contribute, even if they saw absolutely nothing. But Phasma had finished, and even had a suspect.

“That didn’t take very long,” Hux commented.

“Yes, well you see, while you were flirting with Ren, I did actual work. Of course, I can’t really blame you. He’s much nicer looking in person than he is in his mugshot.”

“Let’s just go bring this guy in,” Hux said. There was no point in arguing with Phasma about what he was doing with Ren. No matter what, she’d come to the conclusion that he liked him.

She wouldn’t be entirely wrong, either. But Hux would never admit that to Phasma.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For fun animal facts, check out my [Dreamwidth](https://coragyps.dreamwidth.org/4115.html)


	9. Chapter 9

At first, Kylo thought that Hux was coming by the Center just to check up on the goose in order to help his case, but even after the goose’s wing had healed and the animal released, and after Hux said the person responsible was arrested, he was still coming by. Kylo found that he really didn’t mind Hux being around, especially since he’d stopped asking about his activities with the Knights of Ren. 

Instead, Hux helped him out a little bit and they simply talked. At first, Hux would talk about the cases he was working on and Kylo would tell Hux about some of his different patients. Even though Hux always had new cases and Kylo had new patients, their conversations over the past week or so had been shifting. And they’d been talking about far more personal things.

It started with Hux asking Kylo about how he got the scar on his face. Kylo was tempted to say it was from a mountain lion or an eagle - something that at least sounded cool. But he didn’t want to lie to Hux, especially since he thought that Hux might be able to find out the truth. So he didn’t lie abut it - that a Merlin, a small falcon, had done that to him. 

They were standing close together as Kylo told him about the scar and the bird that had given it to him. Kylo saw Hux’s arm move, as if he was about to reach up and touch the scar, but Hux stopped. Not knowing what else to do, Kylo turned to the refrigerator to remove food for the animals.

“I know Skywalker’s your uncle,” Hux said as Kylo dumped a bunch of dead mice into warm water. “So did you only get into this sort of work because of him?”

“Kind of,” Kylo said. He looked over at him and for a moment, he wasn’t sure just how much he wanted to tell him, but he also knew that Hux could easily look up his history. “My mother convinced my uncle to take me in when I was seventeen. I was getting into a lot of trouble and eventually, I ran away from home. I got picked up by the cops and Luke came to get me. He said that I was going to live with him and I was going to learn how to care for the animals.”

“I bet that went over well with you.”

“Yeah, it was... not great for a while.” Kylo smiled. “I swore that as soon as I was eighteen I was gonna leave and never talk to anyone in my family again.”

“What changed?”

“A lot of things,” Kylo said, shrugging, trying to think of the best way to explain to Hux. He put his hand in the water and squeezed one of the mice, but it was still a bit frozen. “There was another rehabber who kinda helped me out. Showed me that I could make a difference here. I just had to focus my energy into something productive.”

What he couldn’t tell Hux was that the rehabber he referred to now went by the name of Gavia Ren and she had been one of the first, along with Sygnus, who decided to take people who harmed wildlife into their own hands. It certainly had been an excellent outlet for Kylo’s destructive energy. 

“And then Rey helped too. She’s the only family member I liked. I don’t think I was ready to never talk to her again. And eventually, I got really good at what I do too and Luke decided to offer me a job here.”

“He does speak very highly of you,” Hux said. “It must be nice having family that cares about you though.”

“Well, at least some of them do,” Kylo muttered. He pulled another mouse out of the water and could feel it was warm enough. He tossed it on the counter and then pulled out a few more that were also warm. “You don’t get along well with your family then?”

“Not really. My father’s dead and I never knew my mother. My stepmother was always indifferent to me. Nice enough, but she obviously never cared that much about me. Haven’t spoken to her since before my father died. And he wasn’t great when he was alive. I was always a disappointment to him.”

“Really? Why?” That was hard for Kylo to believe. How could someone be disappointed in Hux? He had a great job that he was good at and he helped wild animals.

“He was an asshole. He thought I should follow his footsteps and join the military and then work for the feds. I got him off my back for a while by saying by working for the state, I could work my way up to doing this on the federal level, but then he found out I turned down a chance to do so. Then he died, so now I don’t have to worry about him.”

“Sounds like a real joy.” While Hux had been speaking, Kylo had added medications to the mice and then handed some to Hux. “Go give these to the badger in enclosure two.”

He wanted to continue talking to Hux, but he also needed to get the animals medicated. No matter how much he wanted to talk to Hux, the animals came first. It wasn’t like Hux wasn’t always around. He had plenty of time to talk to him. With Hux’s help, getting all the animals taken care of really didn’t take too long, and Kylo set to cleaning up the kitchen.

“Why did you decide to go into law enforcement?” Kylo asked when Hux returned from the last feeding. “Why wildlife?”

“My father had an… associate. Rae Sloane. She’s actually the director of our division for the entire state now. But she never really liked my father and even when I was a kid, she was always kind to me. She’d watch me when he was working and my stepmother couldn’t be bothered. She moved out here when I was still in school, but she told me that as soon as I was eighteen, I could go move in with her.”

“She sounds nice.”

“She is. I would hate to be on her bad side, though. But of course, on my eighteenth birthday, my father told me to pack my stuff and get out. So I came out here with Rae and she got me on with the division. Let me live with her until I could afford a place of my own too.”

“Almost sounds like Luke.”

“Yes, but unlike you, I stayed out of trouble. I was unfortunate to just have a terrible father.”

“True.” Listening to Hux talk about his father made Kylo realize he might have been too hard on Han. They didn’t get along when he was a teenager, but at least he made an effort to be a good father. Right as he started thinking that maybe he should call him, Hux’s phone rang.

“Sorry,” he said. “I have to take this.” Kylo just shrugged and continued cleaning. It wasn’t the first time he’d had to take a call. Usually from his partner. But this call sounded different and Kylo tried to hear what the other person was saying, but he couldn’t.

“I’ll be there as soon as I can,” Hux said, hanging up his phone. “We got a situation. I gotta go.”

“What’s happening?” Kylo asked. He followed Hux as he was heading out of the building and towards the parking lot.

“There’s a bear in someone’s house,” Hux said. 

“Can I come with you?” he asked. “I could help. With the bear.”

Hux paused and then nodded. “I’m not sure what the situation will be when we get there, but I don’t want you doing anything unless I say. Got it?”

“Yeah,” Kylo agreed. Although he didn’t have much experience with bears, he figured he could at least be a little help, even if all he could do was distract the bear. And if it was injured, maybe he could help with that as well.

He got in the car with Hux and was a bit surprised at how strict he was at sticking to the speed limit. Kylo almost never drove anywhere near the speed limit. Not unless he had an animal in his vehicle. Of course, Hux did seem like the type to never step out of line.

Fortunately, the location of the bear wasn’t too far, but they could see there was a rather chaotic scene. There was a group of people standing around the house next door. Phasma seemed to be watching them as well as the house and Kylo saw the reason for that when they got closer - there was a large black bear clawing at one of the windows.

“I thought the bear was inside,” Kylo said quietly.

“So did I.” Clearly, there was some information that Phasma had been unable to tell him over the phone. Or perhaps the situation had changed while they were driving.

“You there!” A woman broke off from the group of people and stomped towards them. She ignored Kylo and walked right up to Hux. “I want you to take your gun and shoot that bear!”

“Ma’am, I’m not here to shoot anything,” Hux said. “Now if you’ll please join the others, my partner and I will get this sorted out.”

“That is my house! I don’t understand why I can’t shoot those damn things! What good are cops if you don’t protect me or my property?”

“Ma’am, our department protects wildlife from people like you. You can’t just shoot an animal because it’s inconvenient. Now please join the others or I will have you sent somewhere else.”

That seemed to do the trick because the woman stormed off, grumbling angrily about useless cops and laws. Hux and Kylo then walked over to where Phasma was standing. Phasma glanced at Kylo, but focused on Hux.

“We got a baby bear that got trapped inside,” Phasma said. “The mother is trying to get it out. I’ve been unable to approach so far.”

Hux and Phasma kept talking about the bear situation, making their plan of action. Kylo half listened to them, but he paid more attention to the bear. She was clearly desperate to get her cub out and he felt bad for her. She couldn’t understand that some of the humans only wanted to help.

Thinking about the humans who wanted the opposite, he looked at the woman who’d been screaming about shooting the bear. When he did, he immediately sprung into action, not having time to warn Hux. The woman had a gun in her hand and was walking towards either Hux and Phasma or the bear. Kylo didn’t know which, but it didn’t matter. He tackled the woman to the ground and the gun fell out of her hand.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” Kylo shouted. “You can’t just shoot an animal because you don’t like it!”

“You people are doing nothing!”

“Because unlike you, we actually know what we’re doing!”

“Careful, Ren,” Hux said, gently touching him on the shoulder. “We’re not here to fight anyone. Although I do hope that you weren’t planning on shooting any of us.”

Hux picked up the gun from the ground and walked back to his car with it. Kylo kept his eyes on the woman just in case she had any other weapons, but she simply rejoined the others. When Hux came back from his car, he had a rifle with him and Kylo stood in his way, prepared to argue with him about shooting the bear.

“It’s just a tranquilizer,” Hux said, stepping around him. “Unfortunately, this is the only way to get the bear away from all these people. And we need to get the cub from inside, which we won’t be able to do unless she’s out.”

“Yeah,” Kylo said, following behind Hux. “That makes sense.” Even with as much experience he had dealing with wild animals, he wasn’t about to approach the bear.

Hux fired the tranquilizer at the bear, which at first only seemed to make her angry, but very quickly, her movements started to slow and she eventually dropped to the ground. Once she was safely out of their way, Kylo headed for the house and walked in the front door, which was fortunately unlocked.

Finding the bear cub was a simple task as it was making quite a bit of noise, both calling for its mother and tearing the house apart. Although much smaller than the adult, it was still good sized and Kylo knew it had powerful jaws and claws. He very slowly approached it, not wanting to frighten it. Since it was young, it at least seemed more curious than afraid.

Once Kylo was close enough, he grabbed it and it thrashed around, trying to get away, but Kylo managed to calm it down enough so that he could lift it up and carry it outside. Once they were outside, it immediately started thrashing again. Thinking he knew why, Kylo brought it over to its mother and set it down. Almost immediately the bear curled up next to her.

“I thought I told you not to do anything unless I said,” Hux said.

“Give it a rest, Hux,” Phasma said. “At least we didn’t have to deal with pulling a bear out of a house. Your boyfriend’s pretty useful.”

Kylo couldn’t bring himself to look at Hux after she said that, feeling himself blush. But at least Hux had to deal with people referring to them as boyfriends too. He did wonder how Phasma knew anything about him. Did Hux talk about him? 

“I’ve already called for a truck to get the bear out of here,” Hux said. “They’re bringing dogs out as well to search the area for any additional cubs.”

“I can help search the area,” Kylo offered. 

“No offense, Ren, but you can’t search like a dog can. They’ll find any other cubs long before you can.”

“I wouldn’t bet on it,” Kylo said. “It won’t hurt for me to take a look around.”

“Go for it,” Hux said with a shrug. 

Kylo took off, moving behind the house and into the field behind it. He didn’t think the bears would just be sitting in the grass, even if it was tall enough to hide them. If they were, then Kylo probably wouldn’t find them. But there were some trees not too far away that Kylo thought looked like a good place to search.

When he got closer to the trees he stopped and crouched down, looking around for what looked like the best hiding place. There was one place in particular at the base of one tree that Kylo thought might make a decent place to hide a baby bear, but when he got there, there was nothing. He glanced up into the tree branches and he saw it - another bear cub clinging to the tree trunk.

Not knowing what else to do, Kylo started climbing. He really wasn’t the best climber but he’d managed to get into the tree with only a few scrapes. But what he didn’t think about was how he would get out of the tree. Even though he managed to reach the bear, he wasn’t quite sure how to get down while carrying it. 

But before he worried about that, he needed to actually get the bear off the tree. He tried picking it up, but it was holding on to the tree. He had to pry each paw off and slowly get the bear onto his shoulder and then he was able to hold onto the bear with one arm, which at least left his other free to climb. Not that he felt that confident climbing with one arm.

Kylo had to take things slow as he started moving down. He had to wrap his legs around the trunk as best he could and hold on when he needed to move his arm. Finally, he got himself low enough that he decided to simply jump. The bear cub didn’t like that and immediately tried to squirm away, but Kylo managed to keep it in his arms.

The second cub was certainly more fidgety than the first and the entire time Kylo was walking with it, it was trying to get away. It didn’t help that it felt heavier as well, although maybe that was more because he was tired and had much further to walk. Once he was back near the house, Phasma noticed him and came over and took the cub from him and reunited it with its mother.

“We have dogs, you know,” Hux said. “And ladders.”

Kylo just shrugged. He didn’t really think that Hux might have had a better way to get the bear down from the tree. Usually, he just saw that something needed to be done and he did it without much thought.

“Next time, I guess,” he mumbled. He probably should have just told Hux where the cub was. It would have saved him from having to make that climb.

“At least you got it down,” Hux said. “Which is pretty impressive. How did you even find it?”

“I don’t know,” he said, shrugging again. “I guess I just try to think like the bear would. Like where would the bear want to leave her cubs? Or maybe I just spend enough time with animals or something.”

“You’re definitely good with animals.” Hux said. “Does your magic only work on wild ones?”

“What do you mean?”

“I have this cat,” Hux explained. “She doesn’t really like anyone except me. But I think she might like you. I’m not sure if you even like cats, but if you wanted to meet her -”

“I love cats,” Kylo said quickly, not even able to let Hux finish. “I mean, yeah. I’d love to meet her. Does that mean you’re inviting me over?”

“I guess I am.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For bear facts, check out my [dreamwidth post!](https://coragyps.dreamwidth.org/4488.html)


	10. Chapter 10

Hux couldn’t believe that Ren was actually coming over to his apartment. When he’d talked about meeting his cat, he thought for sure that he would say that he was too busy or that he didn’t like cats or some excuse to not come over. But he’d jumped at the chance and Hux had to stop himself from asking him to come over immediately.

If he was going to go through with the probably terrible idea of inviting Ren over, his place needed to be perfectly spotless. Since he rarely had guests, he had let his place get a bit out of control. He had papers sitting on a desk and an empty coffee mug sitting on the kitchen sink and a bag of groceries he hadn’t yet put away. Although some part of him knew Ren wouldn’t care - and he was almost certain that Ren lived in much messier conditions - he couldn’t let someone come in and see any kind of mess.

The only things that he could have lying around were Millicent’s toys. He obviously couldn’t expect the cat to pick up her toys or have any concept of picking up for a guest. But Hux did make sure that he vacuumed her cat beds and her tower to get all the shed fur off of it. He gave Millie a good brushing as well and even thought about giving her a bath, but he decided that was just a bit excessive.

The entire time he was cleaning, Millie was at his feet, rubbing against him and chirping. She definitely wanted attention, but Hux thought that maybe she also realized someone was coming over and he imagined she was saying that she was the only company he needed.

“Don’t worry, Millie,” Hux said, giving her a quick scratch behind the ears. “I think you might like him. At least more than you like most people, anyway.”

Millie just meowed in return and headbutted his leg. She was a very sweet cat with him, although it had taken over a year for her to like him. Once she did, she almost never wanted to be apart from him when he was home. Hux just hoped she liked Ren, because if he did, that meant he wouldn’t feel bad if he invited him over more often.

He had finished cleaning and was sitting on the couch stroking Millie when there was a knock at the door. Immediately, Millie jumped up from his lap and ran to the top of her cat tower, which was where she always liked to observe any visitors from. If the person stayed for any amount of time, she would usually take off and hide in the bedroom.

Hux hoped she wouldn’t hide from Ren, but he thought she most likely would. She’d even hid from him for the first few months of living together. He opened the door and was surprised to see Ren wearing a nice pair of jeans and a short-sleeved button-up shirt. Hux had never seen him wear anything but shorts and t-shirts, and usually quite dirty ones. He’d thought he was good-looking before, but now Hux couldn’t take his eyes off of him.

“Hi,” Ren said, and Hux realized he was standing in the doorway, staring.

“Come in,” Hux said, stepping aside to let him in. Ren walked in and Hux could not believe he was actually there in his apartment. And he could not believe just how good he looked. And smelled. He hadn’t expected Ren to smell so clean. He didn’t usually smell bad - unless something threw up on him - but it was fairly obvious he worked with animals all day.

“Cute cat,” he said, glancing in Millie’s direction.

“Yeah, like I said, she’s not very friendly. She’ll probably just sit up there and watch you for a bit.”

“That’s fine,” Ren said. “I’ll just leave her alone.”

“You can sit down,” Hux invited. “And maybe she’ll come over to see you.”

Ren sat down on the couch and Hux sat down next to him. Almost as soon as he sat down, he stood back up again, realizing he was being a terrible host. “Sorry,” he said as he headed towards his kitchen. “Can I get you something to drink? I don’t have much but I think I have some soda. Or water. ”

“Sure,” Ren said. “Just whatever, I guess. I’m not picky.”

Hux opened the refrigerator and took out two cans of Coke. He had no idea how long he’d had them for, but he suspected it had been months. Somehow, he didn’t think Ren would mind even if they were several years old. He put two coasters out on his coffee table before setting the cans down and then he returned to his seat next to Ren.

“How’d the bear situation work out?” Ren asked as he opened his can.

“They were taken a ways out and released,” Hux said. “The dogs didn’t find any more cubs, either. So I guess next time, we should just call you.”

“I’d try,” Ren said. “But I think I mostly just got lucky.”

“Well, hopefully we don’t run into this situation again.”

“Are bears usually something you have to deal with?”

“Not really,” Hux said. “It gets worse when they’re getting ready to hibernate and then in spring when they wake up. But usually, as long as people are smart, it’s really not that bad.”

“When are people ever smart?” Ren laughed a little. Hux realized that he had never heard him laugh before and he immediately loved the way his laugh sounded. All he could think of was getting him to laugh again.

“True,” Hux agreed, unable to keep himself from smiling. “I’m sure you have just as many stories as I do.”

“Probably. I once had a person call and ask if a bird was a reptile or a mammal and what they should feed it. I didn’t even know where to start with that one. I literally just gave the phone to Rey. I think that was the last time I answered the phone at the Center, actually.”

“Sounds like some of the people we deal with who find baby birds and try to keep them as pets and have no idea what kind of birds they even are. Of course, they call us and we just show up and take the bird away. And then there’s the amount of people who straight up tell us they have feathers from hawks and what not. Although in that case, them being stupid makes my job easier.”

“I don’t think stupid people ever make my job easier,” Ren said. “Although there’s a reason I mostly work with rehab animals and not with our education department.”

“But you do work with them sometimes, right?” Hux clearly remembered Finn asking Ren to take over on an education program for him, but perhaps he had misunderstood the situation. 

“Yeah, sometimes. If I have to. But I usually leave all that to the others. Rey’s kinda unofficially in charge of education. She and Finn and sometimes Poe probably do most of the programming but then some other volunteers do too sometimes. I only do it last minute if someone can’t make it or no one else is available. And I only go to help handle animals. I don’t want to actually talk to anyone.”

“I don’t blame you,” Hux said. “Unfortunately, talking to people is a large part of my job, so I can’t really avoid it. Phasma is a bit better at it, but at least we don’t have to be nice. So there’s that at least.”

“Yeah, I could probably do education if I could tell people that they’re complete fucking idiots,” Ren agreed with a smile. “But we’re supposed to be nice and gently explain to people why they’re complete fucking idiots.”

“I don’t think I could manage.”

“Yeah. Hey, you should come see one of our talks sometime. We do public ones once a month down at the Calrissian Nature Center. Usually draws a pretty good crowd. If you’re in the audience, you can call people idiots. Or you could at least ask questions that aren’t stupid.”

“If I can make it work with my schedule,” Hux said, “I think that would be fun. Will you be there?”

“Yeah, I can just let Rey know I want to help with that talk. She’ll totally be suspicious about why. And she’ll probably be doing the actual talk so she’ll see you and know why, but I don’t care what she thinks.”

“Everyone does think there’s something going on between us,” Hux said. Before he could say anything else, he noticed something orange moving out of the corner of his eye. He turned his head in time to see Millie jumping on the couch and then moving to sit in his lap.

“Looks like she doesn’t totally hate me,” Ren said, glancing at her but then looking back up at Hux. He then put his hand out towards her, but didn’t try to touch her.

For a few moments, Millie just looked at his hand and Hux was very aware of just how close Ren’s hand was to his thigh. If he was only a few inches closer, Ren would be touching him. It was very tempting to scoot closer to him, but he didn’t want to disturb Millie. Instead, he just had to hope that Ren would get closer to Millie and accidentally touch him as well.

Millie stretched her head forward to sniff at Ren’s hand, which was very surprising. He’d never known her to come so close to someone else willingly. But not only did she come down from her tower and get within arm’s reach of a stranger, she was even sniffing his hand and not swatting at him. She didn’t touch him, but she was definitely tolerating him. She eventually pulled away from him and settled down in Hux’s lap.

“I like her,” Ren said.

“I think she actually might like you. I’d say you do have some special powers, but I guess you’re smart enough to know how to introduce yourself to a strange cat.”

“I’d like to think so,” he said.

“Most people just walk over and try petting her or picking her up. Even if I tell them she doesn’t like new people. And of course, she instantly hates them and runs away. I think she only likes me and Director Sloane.”

“Your boss? Really?”

“Yeah. That’s how I got her actually. She was wandering around her neighborhood. She caught her and found out where she lived and gave her back, but they just let her out. Didn’t listen to anything she had to say about how dangerous that was for a cat. About a week later, she found the cat outside again and caught her again. Then she brought her into the office and said she was free to anyone who wanted her. The original owners didn’t have her microchipped or anything.”

“Poor thing,” Ren said. He looked back down at Millie. “So you took her in?”

“Yeah. Well, she hated everyone and wouldn’t let anyone pet her, so no one else really wanted her. But I live alone and hardly ever have anyone over so I just said she could live with me. And if she never really interacted with me, I didn’t really mind.”

“How long did it take before she warmed up to you?”

“It was about a year before she would climb in my lap like this,” he said. “Although she didn’t really want me to pet her at first. But once she was comfortable climbing on me, it took maybe another two months for her to decide she liked getting pet.”

“Maybe she’d learn to like me someday.”

“If you came over enough, she probably would,” Hux said. “And I’d like that. It’s nice having someone to talk to.”

“Really?” Ren asked. “I mean, I’d like that too. I’ve never really been good at talking to people, but I like talking to you.”

“Me too,” Hux said. “Actually, just before Millie came over here, I wanted to ask you something.”

“Yeah?”

Hux knew it had to be his imagination, but he thought Ren was moving slightly closer to him. He certainly wasn’t leaning towards him, although Millie did jump off his lap, so maybe he had moved just a little. He reached over and touched Ren’s shoulder, but before he could do anything more, his phone rang.

“Fuck!” Hux swore loudly. Of course he’d get a call from work right when he was about to kiss Ren. Or was that even what they were doing? Hux didn’t know and he didn’t really have time to think about it because he answered his phone.

“What?” he growled. 

“You’re needed back in the office,” Phasma said. “Sorry to interrupt whatever massively important thing you had going on, but the feds just arrived. Looks like there’s a major situation going on if they’ve been called in.”

“Right, fuck, okay,” he sighed. “I’ll be right there.” He hung up his phone and looked over at Ren, but he’d moved back and the moment was over. “Sorry. We have an emergency at work.”

“Do you need help?’ 

“Sorry, Ren. Not this time. It’s a.... I don’t even know. But I need to get there as soon as possible.”

“Yeah, okay,” he said as he stood up and started towards the door. “That’s fine. I’ll see you around, I guess.”

“Yeah. See you Ren.”

He walked with Ren to the door and opened it for him, and Ren paused and looked at him. For a moment, Hux considered kissing him right then, but then Ren turned and left. He’d missed his chance again. But hopefully he’d get another.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For some stuff about cats, check out my [dreamwidth post](https://coragyps.dreamwidth.org/4768.html).


	11. Chapter 11

Kylo drove back to the Skywalker Wildlife Center after leaving Hux’s place. He hadn’t planned on coming in until much later in the day, having set apart several hours to spend with Hux. Which for a moment, he’d thought he’d need all that time. But of course, he hadn’t even managed to kiss him. He should have moved faster and just done it. But he’d been nervous and hoping Hux would be the one to kiss him.

But Hux hadn’t and then he’d gotten the phone call from work. Kylo couldn’t help but think that maybe Hux had faked the call because he didn’t want to kiss him. Of course, he’d heard the phone ring, so unless there was someone hiding in his apartment that he’d told to call if it looked like they might kiss, that couldn’t have been faked. But if anyone would have set up a way to get out of kissing someone, it would be Hux.

When he arrived at work, he saw Poe’s car in the parking lot. He almost considered going to him and asking him what he thought about the situation, but he knew that Poe would tease him endlessly. He might have some good advice, but he really didn’t want to put up with Poe bothering him about his relationship - or non-relationship - with Hux.

Instead, he started making his rounds, taking note of what needed to be done. Usually, his work kept him from thinking about much else, but unfortunately, he couldn’t get his mind off of the man. Since Hux had been at the Center so often, he kept thinking about how Hux had helped him hold an animal to administer medication or how Hux had freaked out the first time he dropped a dead mouse in his hands or how he was the one of the few people who could watch him skin something and not bat an eye.

He just wished he knew if Hux actually liked him. He’d really thought that he did. After all, he’d been spending all that time with him at the Center and then let him tag along on his assignment. And he’d invited him over. And he’d almost certainly been thinking about kissing him. He’d gently touched his shoulder. Surely, there was no other explanation for all of that. But he didn’t know why Hux hadn’t just kissed him.

It almost made him wonder if Hux was actually investigating him the entire time. Maybe he hadn’t given up on finding out about his involvement with the Knights of Ren. Since questioning him hadn’t worked, maybe he had just tried getting close to him and wasn’t actually interested in him.

Kylo couldn’t help but think about all their interactions, wondering if there was anything he might have said or done to indicate that he didn’t really like him. Now that he thought more about it, he thought that perhaps everything had just been part of some carefully crafted plan.

He should have known better. He should have known that a cop wouldn’t actually be interested in him. Not when he suspected him of several crimes. Of course it had all been part of a scheme. Kylo couldn’t believe he’d been that stupid. 

He kicked the nearest wall in frustration and yelled at it, although neither action really made him feel any better. He gave the wall another kick before dropping to the ground. There was no way he could focus on getting any work done, so he just decided to sit there until he felt better.

“Kylo? You okay?” 

He didn’t even look up when he heard Poe’s voice. He was too tired and didn’t really want to see him or anyone else. Although he didn’t want to interact with him, he also didn’t have the energy to stand up and move away when Poe sat next to him.

“You want to talk, buddy?” Poe asked.

Kylo shook his head and at least Poe seemed to understand because he didn’t speak. Instead, he put an arm around him. Kylo really didn’t want that either, but at least he knew that Poe didn’t have any ulterior motives. 

After a few moments, Kylo found himself leaning against him. Poe was usually annoying, but he at least knew when to back off and actually be nice. Of course, it was rare, but he really did appreciate not sitting and crying by himself.

“Did something happen with Hux?” Poe asked after Kylo had calmed down a little.

He shook his head, only because he didn’t really want to talk about it. He didn’t know how to tell anyone about what had happened. Or about how stupid he had been. Poe would call him an idiot, and then he’d tell Rey and Finn and they’d do the same.

“I know you aren’t really one for talking, but if you ever need to, I’ll listen. And if Hux hurt you, I can go beat him up or something. Well, I won’t. But I’ll tell Rey and she’ll do it.”

Kylo almost smiled at that because he knew it was true. Rey was always ready for a fight if it meant protecting family members. Even if Kylo didn’t really need protection.

“I’m fine,” he said. “It’s just been a hard day.”

“We all have those every now and then. Whatever it is, it’ll get better. Did you want some help over here? I don’t have anything else to do for the moment so I can help you with some stuff. I don’t really work over here too much, but I could probably do at least a few things to help you out.”

Kylo nodded. Normally, he would have declined since he liked doing the work and it kept his mind off of other things, but since everything seemed to remind him of Hux, he just wanted to get things over with. And since Poe was actually being nice instead of getting on his nerves, Kylo didn’t mind him.

Like Poe said, he really didn’t know how to work with the animals in rehab, but he could certainly clean and that did make Kylo’s job quite a bit easier. And once he finally got everything clean and all the animals taken care of, Kylo did feel a bit better.

“Thanks, Poe,” he said as they walked over to the other side of the building. Kylo’s break room on his side of the building was simply just sitting on the counter in the kitchen, but the education side had an actual lounge.

“Anytime, buddy. I know we don’t always get along, and maybe I tease you more than I should, but I do consider us friends. So anytime you need anything, you can come to me.”

Kylo sat down at the table and Poe sat across from him. For a few moments, they were silent, but since he didn’t really have anyone else to talk to and because Poe was being nice, he decided to talk to him.

“Can I ask you something?” he asked.

“Sure.”

“You know Hux? What do you think about him?”

“Like personally?” Poe shrugged. “I don’t know. He seems pretty uptight, but I know he’s good at what he does. He at least knows who I am so when I’m transporting animals, he doesn’t make me show proof that I actually work here. So that’s nice. But if he did something to you, then I hate the guy.”

“No,” Kylo said. “He didn’t. I don’t think he did. I don’t know. Do you think he likes me?”

“Kylo, I know he likes you. A guy doesn’t hang out with you for several hours every day if he doesn’t like you. He obviously wants to spend time with you.”

“Yeah, but do you think maybe it was some kind of investigation or something?”

“Why would he be investigating you?”

Kylo remembered that Poe didn’t actually know about the Knights of Ren and he couldn’t just tell him. Rey knowing was bad enough, but at least she didn’t have the tendency to talk too much and tell everyone everything she knew. He assumed that Finn knew as well, but Finn was probably too scared to tell anyone. But Poe… he would tell someone. Even if it wasn’t intentional, he might accidentally let something slip.

“There was this thing,” Kylo said. “And he was convinced that I was involved somehow. The first few times I spoke to him, he was just bothering me about it, but then he stopped and just started hanging out with me. What if he was just trying to get close so he could get information?”

“That seems like a lot of effort,” Poe said. “But I suppose anything’s possible. What makes you think this is part of some scheme?”

Kylo looked down at the table. He didn’t really like talking about himself or his personal life, but he also couldn’t just keep it to himself or it would drive him crazy. And even if they didn’t get along great all the time, Poe was one of his oldest friends, having known him his entire life.

He decided to take a chance and told Poe about how Hux had invited him over to meet his cat and how they’d just sat and talked and how Millie had walked over and sniffed his hands. Then, deciding to trust Poe with the knowledge, he told him about how they had almost kissed but were then interrupted by a phone call, which was supposedly from work.

“He invited you over to meet his cat? Yeah, he definitely likes you. There’s no way he could have arranged for a phone call right then. It’s just bad timing. I’m sure he’ll call you as soon as he has time and you guys can kiss all you want.”

“You think so?” 

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure he really likes you.” Poe had his phone out and seemed to be texting, and Kylo tried to subtly glance at the screen to see who he was texting, but he couldn’t see. He just hoped that he wasn’t texting anyone about what he just told him. Poe had been nice, but he knew that didn’t mean he would manage to keep himself from gossiping.

“What if he doesn’t?”

Poe shrugged and glanced up from his phone. “There’s not much I can say,” he said. “If he doesn’t like you, then he doesn’t. But from everything I’ve seen, he does. He asked you over with the excuse of meeting his cat. That was definitely just to get you over there. Why don’t you just ask him out on an official date? Instead of running around after porcupines or whatever, you two should have a real date.”

“Those weren’t dates,” Kylo argued. “We just like to help each other with work. I mean, our jobs just overlap a bit. So it makes sense. We didn’t go on any kind of date.”

“I know. I figured that you’d be the kind of person who considers running through the mud while being chased by animals a date.”

“Yeah, well, you probably think getting absolutely shitfaced at a bar is a date.”

“For your information, I have been on several dates that didn’t even involve alcohol.”

“Yeah? With who?”

“Don’t you mean with whom?”

“No one gives a fuck, Poe. Who, whom. What’s the difference anyways?”

“Look at you,” Poe said, smiling. “You’re feeling better already.”

Kylo opened his mouth to argue, but Poe was right. He definitely was feeling better about the Hux situation, both because of Poe’s reassurance and because Poe had finally gotten his mind off of things. “Yeah, thanks.”

They sat in silence for a while, which was nice. One of the main reasons that Kylo didn’t like being around Poe was because the other man could never seem to shut up, and most of the time, Kylo was perfectly fine sitting with someone and not talking. Unless there was something to say, Kylo didn’t see a point in talking. Poe, on the other hand, just liked to talk.

“So you think I should call him?” Kylo asked after a few moments.

“Call who?” Rey asked from the doorway.

Kylo looked up and saw her walking into the room. He didn’t know where she had come from, but he hoped that she hadn’t been anywhere that she could have overheard their earlier conversation. Now that he’d told one person about his problems, he didn’t want anyone else knowing.

“None of your business,” he muttered.

Rey kept coming towards them and Kylo was just about to ask her what she was doing when she walked over to Poe and put her arms around him and kissed him. That was not what he had expected her to do. He’d never imagined that Rey would be with anyone but Finn, especially given how long they’d been together.

“Why’d you kiss Poe?” Kylo asked her.

“None of your business,” she said with a smirk. “Anyway, I’m going to assume you were talking about your cop boyfriend.”

“He’s not my boyfriend.”

“And I want to say,” Rey continued as if Kylo hadn’t even spoken, “that it’s not a good idea. Not with the kinds of things you get up to. He’s a cop, Kylo. Don’t get involved with him. Even spending as much time as you do with him isn’t a good idea.”

“I’m not involved with him!”

“But you want to be, don’t you?”

“I don’t see why you care!” He didn’t expect Rey of all people to be the one telling him not to do something while Poe was the supportive one. 

“Because he’s a cop and you’re… you! And I don’t want you to get arrested because you just had to hook up with a cop!”

“I can do whatever I want!” Having enough of that conversation, Kylo stood up, ready to leave and not speak to anyone for the next few days, but then he remembered what he’d witnessed when Rey first walked in. 

“How about you leave me alone or I’ll tell Finn about you and Poe?”

“Go right ahead,” Rey said. “Please. Tell him.”

Kylo had no idea if she was just bluffing or not, and he really didn’t care. He’d had enough social interaction to last for quite some time and now he just wanted to be alone. And at least spending time with Poe had at least been relaxing, but he could only take so much. Unless it was Hux. Kylo couldn’t spend too much time with him.

He hadn’t lied about not being with Hux, but he certainly wanted to be. He only hoped that Poe was right and that Hux wanted the same thing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Baby bird facts and more on my [dreamwidth!](https://coragyps.dreamwidth.org/4897.html)


	12. Chapter 12

When Hux made it into the office, he could see that everyone was heading into the large conference room. He quickened his pace in order to be with the rest of the group as they entered and then he slid into a seat next to Phasma.

“You hear anything about what’s going on?” Hux whispered to her. 

“Not really,” she whispered back. “Some guy called Snoke is coming in to head the investigation. The only other thing we know is that it must be really important for the feds to be here.”

Hux couldn’t help but grimace at the name. He’d never met him, but he knew that he’d worked with his father and his father had thought very highly of Snoke. Even though he knew nothing else about him, Hux could assume that anyone his father admired was not someone he wanted to be associated with.

Before Hux could say anything, Director Sloane walked into the room followed by three older men in suits. Automatically, Hux decided he didn’t like them, regardless of what his father might have thought of them. Anyone wearing a suit in their line of work was the type who sat in the office and didn’t get their hands dirty. Even Director Sloane usually wore her uniform, despite rarely being out in the field herself.

“Listen up,” Director Sloane barked. “We’ve got a federal case here, so we have Director Snoke and Agents Cannady and Peavey in from the Fish and Wildlife Service. We’ll be fully cooperating with them and giving them all the resources they need. As of right now, this case takes priority. I’ll let Director Snoke brief you on the case.”

“Thank you, Director Sloane,” said the oldest of the three men. Hux thought he looked old enough that he might keel over any moment and was definitely well past retirement age. “I appreciate your cooperation in this matter. We are, of course, dealing with a very serious issue, which is why our department has been called in. While I’m sure that your local agency is perfectly well suited for most day-to-day things, this is something that we absolutely must have go correctly in order to find and charge the perpetrator or perpetrators.”

As much as Hux wanted to listen, just in case something important was said, he found that he couldn’t listen as Snoke continued to drone on and on. It didn’t help that Snoke had managed to insult everyone in the room as he spoke. He definitely wasn’t there to make friends, and Hux thought he’d be very lucky if only half of the agents wanted him dead by the time his case wrapped up.

Hux wasn’t the only one not paying attention, but he at least thought he did a much better job of faking it than the others. He could see several agents looking at their phones and hear a few whispered bits of conversation. Even Phasma wasn’t trying to look interested, her elbow on the table and using her arm to prop her head up. From the looks of things, only he and Director Sloane were paying attention, and when Hux caught her eye, she rolled her eyes. Even she was already done with Snoke and the feds.

“Now, some of you may be wondering about the nature of this case,” Snoke said, and Hux noticed that a few people finally looked back at him. Of course, that’s all they had been waiting for. “This is a rather unfortunate incident in which a Bald Eagle has been shot and killed. Given that it’s an eagle and not the little birds that you are trained to deal with, we are going to be handling this investigation, although we will need your support. Many of you will find your day to day jobs much the same, although I have reviewed some of your personnel files and have selected a few people I would like to assist myself and the others.”

“I hope he doesn’t pick me,” Phasma muttered. Hux gave a very slight nod in agreement although he knew that his last name alone might doom him. If Snoke remembered his father, he might pick him just for that reason. He certainly hoped his father had only heard of Snoke in passing and hadn’t actually known the man. If he had to work closely with him, Hux wasn’t sure he would manage to survive. Especially, if he always spoke like that, saying far too many words while actually saying very little.

Snoke continued to speak, but didn’t really say anything important. No relevant case information or anything about possible suspects. He only managed to vaguely speak about some of his past cases, which Hux really didn’t care about. He only hoped that he really was good at his job and wrapped up the case quickly so he would leave.

Finally, after what seemed like an hour, Snoke dismissed them. As they filed out of the room, Hux could hear the others grumbling about federal involvement in what should have been one of their cases, but Hux wasn’t too bothered by it. The Fish and Wildlife Service always got involved in cases involving eagles. Apparently, they just didn’t trust local departments to be able to handle them.

“I think I need to do what you do and start handling work from your boyfriend’s place,” Phasma said as they walked back to their desks. “If I don’t see the feds, I don’t have to deal with them.”

“I don’t have a boyfriend,” Hux said.

“Sure. I know you invited him over. How’d that go, by the way?”

“It was going great,” Hux said. “Until you called and told me to get to the office. Right when I was about to kiss him, too.”

“Oh, fuck. He was over when I called? I’m really sorry, Hux. I didn’t know. I still would have called you, but I’m really sorry that I ruined it for you. Hopefully you can get away from here and go see him.”

“Yeah, hopefully,” Hux said, sitting down at his desk. He decided not to tell Phasma that he thought there was a fairly good possibility that he might be one of the unlucky few who had to deal directly with Snoke.

Still, he could hope that he wouldn’t have to, so he got to work, looking for a new case. Maybe if he looked busy enough, Snoke might go and find someone else to bother. He’d just found a case that looked promising, but when he looked towards Phasma, he saw Snoke walking towards his desk.

“Fuck,” he muttered to himself.

“Ah,” Snoke said as he approached. “Of course you are Armitage Hux. I should have expected Brendol’s bastard to have his red hair. I knew your father, which perhaps you might have guessed already. He was a good man. Did some good work. I knew he had a son, but I didn’t realize you’d settled for working in such a small department. With a father like Brendol, you could have probably started working for one of the federal agencies early on in your career.”

“I like it here,” Hux said.

“Yes, well, I hope you know that there are other opportunities for someone like you. I did, of course, review your file. You are clearly one of the best and I think your talents are being wasted here. You could do so much more. Since you are clearly the best agent here, I have decided I want your personal assistance while I’m working on this eagle case. And if things go well, there is always the chance you could come work for my agency.”

“Like I said, I am perfectly happy here.”

“Yes, of course. But there is a significant pay increase working for us. Not that you have to make a decision now, and perhaps after working with you, I’ll decide you’re not fit for being part of my team, but it’s something to think about. And just between us, I do have very high expectations from the son of Brendol Hux. I’m sure that you’ll be good enough that I’ll be extending a job offer your way once this is over.”

Hux was about to tell him that he had no intention of ever leaving his job, especially not to work for him, but he never had the chance as Snoke was already walking away. Hopefully, he’d had a few other people in mind that he planned on bothering while he was in town.

“That sucks,” Phasma said. “But he does seem to like you. He’s already practically offering you a better job.”

“Better only in terms of pay,” Hux said. “And I wouldn’t even consider it. Especially not working for him.”

“Really? You wouldn’t want to be a fed?”

“Absolutely not.”

“Because of your dad.” It wasn’t a question. Hux almost never spoke about his father, and he knew that all he’d ever said to Phasma about him was that they didn’t get along. He didn’t know how she could have guessed that his father was one of the main reasons he didn’t want to work for the Fish and Wildlife Service. “Relax, Hux. I looked up all kinds of information on you when you were first assigned to be my partner. I know your father worked for Fish and Wildlife.”

“You looked me up?”

“Yeah. Didn’t you do the same to me?”

“No.” The thought had never even crossed his mind. Anytime he had been assigned a new partner, he’d learned about them on the job, as all he really cared about was how they worked together.

“You seem like the type that would,” Phasma said with a shrug. “But I guess it’s good that you don’t plan on leaving us anytime soon. I’d hate to get a new partner. Not when we work so well together. You know. I punch them, you do the paperwork.”

“That does work out surprisingly well,” Hux said with a smile. “Imagine how much more paperwork you would have to do if I wasn’t around to do it.”

“Please don’t make me think about it,” Phasma groaned. “Anyway, what are you going to do about your boyfriend?”

“What do you mean?” Hux asked, not even bothering to correct her about calling Ren his boyfriend.

“Well, you said you were just about to kiss and you didn’t. And now you’ve got the feds watching you. Which means you’re probably going to actually have to be in the office. So how are you going to deal with that? You just left the guy hanging and who knows when you’ll get to see him again.”

“Fuck.” He knew that she was right and that he had gotten himself into a less than ideal situation with Ren. And he wouldn’t be able to simply disappear for a few hours if Snoke wanted him to work with his team. Sloane didn’t mind when he wasn’t in the office, but he wouldn’t be able to get away with that if Snoke was watching him.

He should have at least given Ren a quick kiss before he left his apartment, or at least hugged him or showed him some form of affection. Instead, he’d almost kissed the man and then told him he had to leave immediately. Hux knew what that looked like. He just hoped that Ren understood and wouldn’t be mad. 

“I should call him,” Hux said, knowing he may not have a chance to see him in person for a while. He picked up his phone then swore and put it back down. “I don’t actually know his number.”

“You don’t know your boyfriend’s number?” Phasma asked, laughing. “How long have you been seeing him for?”

“I haven’t been seeing him, Phasma, because he’s not my boyfriend. I’ve never needed his number, I guess.”

“Just call the Skywalker Center,” she suggested.

“Oh, yes, I’m sure that will go over great. Talk to his uncle and ask him to tell Ren that I’m sorry that I left and that I really did want to kiss him. I don’t think Ren would ever speak to me again if I did that.”

“I’ll call them,” she offered, reaching for her phone.

“Don’t even think about it!” He almost shouted and he drew the attention of many of the others in the office, but they quickly returned their attention to their own tasks. “I’ll figure it out. The last thing I need is anyone else involved in this situation.”

“Maybe Snoke will talk to Kylo for you,” Phasma said. “That might actually work out. I bet Kylo gets mad and punches him in the face.”

“Yeah,” Hux said, unable to keep himself from smiling at the thought. “He just might.”

He knew that Ren had some anger issues and could easily see him taking it out on Snoke. Especially if Snoke spoke to him like he did to everyone in Hux’s department. That thought also made him consider what Ren might do if he was mad about the way he had left.

Ren would certainly be upset, but surely he wouldn’t be angry enough to hit him. But when Hux thought about it, he really didn’t know that side of Ren. He just had to hope that things would work out between them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Here's some eagle facts](https://coragyps.dreamwidth.org/5302.html).


	13. Chapter 13

It had been over a week since he almost kissed Hux. At first, Kylo was hopeful that Poe was right and Hux would come by the Center again and they could hang out together and hopefully finally kiss. He’d even taken to coming in extra early just in case Hux happened to drop by. But he never showed up.

Worse, he never even called him to let him know what was going on. Even though Poe assured him that he was probably just busy, Kylo couldn’t help but think that Hux had never actually been interested in him. He probably hadn’t even wanted to kiss him and that phone call had just been a coincidence and Hux had used it as an excuse to stop talking to him.

He had heard about the eagle that had been killed, and he realized that was a major case and he knew Hux might be dealing with that, but it didn’t explain why he hadn’t called. And he didn’t think he was so busy he wouldn’t have had time to at least stop by the Center and let him know what was going on. 

Kylo wasn’t sure if he was more depressed or angry about Hux, but he at least had a decent outlet for his emotions. When he’d been hanging out with Hux, he hadn’t gone out with the Knights as often, but now, there was no reason not to. And of course, taking his anger out on someone who deserved it made him feel much better. 

When he wasn’t out with the Knights, the only thing he wanted to do was take care of the animals at the Center. He didn’t want to talk to anyone else and he most certainly didn’t want to go out and do educational talks. But it seemed like Rey and the others were asking him more and more often about going out with the animals and interacting with the public. Which was the last thing he wanted to do. He’d even snapped at Rey and didn’t feel bad about it. She should have known to stop asking him to go with her.

Apparently, that had been the right move because he’d been at work for several hours and no one had spoken to him. He’d seen Finn and he must have been mad that he’d shouted at his girlfriend - if he was even still dating Rey, but Kylo didn’t care - because he’d only glared at him and walked away. Kylo really didn’t care what Finn thought about him.

Once Kylo had finished his morning rounds, he took a break, but he had never really stopped to eat lunch unless Hux was there. He usually just played some games on his phone before getting back to work. Since he wasn’t even in the mood to play games, he was just sitting on the kitchen counter.

After about ten minutes, he decided he’d start his afternoon rounds and hopefully finish up and go home early. He didn’t really want to be at the Center at the moment. He’d rather be at home in bed or beating up some asshole. Or with Hux, but that obviously wasn’t going to happen.

Before he could get started, the door from the visitor center opened and when Kylo looked to see who was walking in, he saw Han coming over. He grabbed the chart sitting outside the enclosure he was standing by and pretended to be studying it.

“Hey, kid,” Han said.

“I’m busy,” Kylo grumbled.

“Yeah, so I’ve heard. So, look, I know you’re going through a rough time and -”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Kylo said, shoving the chart back into its slot by the door and walking away from Han. He never really wanted to see his father, and most certainly not when he wasn’t in a good mood to begin with.

“I know, but you really upset Rey the other day and she was just trying to help you. So maybe you don’t want to talk about it, but it seems like you need to. Come on, kid. Just talk to me. You don’t even have to tell me exactly what happened. I just want to know if you’re okay.”

Han had followed him and when Kylo stopped, he put a hand on his shoulder. Immediately, Kylo pushed him away. 

“Fuck off!” he shouted. “I don’t want to talk to you! You’ve already made it clear that you don’t care about me so you can’t just show up and pretend you do! Although you said it yourself. You’re here because of Rey. I’m sorry I’m not as good as she is, okay? I’ll never be like her, so please just get the fuck out of here and don’t speak to me again!”

“Ben -”

“Leave me alone!”

Kylo took off again but Han didn’t follow. He went back into the kitchen and slammed the door before sitting down on the floor. He was having a bad enough week as it was and having his father show up had only made it worse. He just hoped he didn’t plan on sticking around long because he still had work to do.

After a while the door opened and Kylo looked up, expecting to see Han, but Luke was the one who walked in. If Luke was coming to talk to him, he knew he was probably in trouble, and it wasn’t hard to figure out why.

“I’m sorry I yelled,” Kylo grumbled.

“That’s not why I’m here,” Luke said. “Not exactly. Your dad’s gone. I know you weren’t prepared for that. If I’d known he planned on showing up, I would have warned you. I told him not to come, but I guess he thought he could help.”

“Yeah, well, he didn’t.”

“I know. He’s just worried about you. So am I.”

“There’s nothing to worry about.”

“I think there is. You’re usually not in this bad of a mood. I know you don’t want to talk about it, but I do want to help you. I don’t know if you need a few days off or -”

“I’m fine!” Kylo said loudly. He wasn’t quite yelling at him, but he was close. 

“Kylo,” Luke started to speak again, but Kylo didn’t let him.

“There’s nothing wrong, okay? Can everyone please just leave me the fuck alone?”

For a moment, they just looked at each other and Kylo thought that Luke was going to keep talking, but he turned and left the room, leaving Kylo alone once more. With no one bothering him, he could finally get back to work. 

He’d just finished up feeding the animals when he saw Rey approaching him. He assumed she was going to ask him to go on an education program again even though he’d chewed her out about it. She could be just as stubborn as anyone else in the family.

“What the fuck’s wrong with you, Kylo?” she asked. That question caught him off guard, especially since he so rarely heard her use strong language. All he could do was stare at her. 

“You are being such an asshole,” Rey continued. “Everyone is really worried about you and whenever anyone tries to help, you turn into a giant piss baby!”

“I didn’t ask for help,” he muttered. Not wanting to continue the conversation, he started to walk away, but she grabbed him by the shirt and pulled him backwards, almost knocking him to the ground.

“I know, but you’re family whether you like it or not and that’s what family does. I know you’re upset about your break up, but getting mad at everyone here isn’t going to help.”

“I didn’t break up,” Kylo said. “We weren’t even dating.”

“Then why the hell are you being so shitty to everyone?” Rey shouted at him. He wasn’t used to Rey shouting at him either and it took him a moment to process what she had said. “Look, Kylo. You’ve been a real ass lately, but I’m still inviting you to come out with me and some friends tonight. You need to get your mind off of your not-ex-boyfriend.”

“No thanks,” he said with a sigh. He knew Rey was right - he hadn’t been very nice and he probably should do something to get his mind off of Hux, but he really didn’t think he wanted to spend time with Rey and her friends. They were far too happy for him. He’d much rather go out with the Knights.

“Okay, but let me know if you change your mind. I’ll even come pick you up.”

“Thanks,” he muttered. “And sorry. About yelling at you yesterday.”

“I forgive you,” Rey said. “Just make sure it doesn’t happen again.” 

She didn’t have to add an “or else” at the end of that. Kylo knew that if he yelled at her again, he’d likely be sorry. She’d been aggressive enough as it was, and he knew she could be just as bad as he was, although she would definitely win in a fight. Mostly because Kylo wouldn’t want to hurt Rey but he was certain she wouldn’t care much about hurting him if he crossed the line again.

Once she left, Kylo finished up the rest of his duties and then left. He usually liked to hang out at work after he’d finished since he liked being there, but he wanted to get home as soon as possible. He’d already picked out the next person he was going to beat up - they’d intentionally knocked a bird nest out of a tree and killed two baby birds.

When he got home, he saw that all the other Knights were there and were apparently ready to go. They were all wearing black clothes that concealed their forms. To anyone but themselves, they all looked very similar, although Kylo knew each of their outfits like he knew his own.

“I’ve got someone in mind,” Kylo said. “I don’t know if any of you want to come with me or if you all have other targets.”

“Who’s your target?” Gavia asked. Kylo quickly gave her all the details of the case. “Okay, Lan and Zeph, you guys take that one. Cro, you’re with me. And Syg, you take Gulo with you.”

“What the fuck?” Kylo said. “You can’t just take this from me!”

“I just did,” Gavia said. “You’ve been off, Ky. You’re not yourself. And I don’t think punching people is helping you right now. So take a night off. Go do something else. Or sit in your room and cry. I don’t really care, but you’re not coming out with us.”

“You need to get yourself figured out,” Lanius said. “Take a bubble bath or something.”

“Get drunk and cry yourself to sleep,” Gulo suggested. 

“Whatever you need to do to get your head on straight,” Zephius said with a shrug. “And when we come back tonight, if you want, we can talk about what’s bothering you. I know we don’t really do the whole feelings thing, but, uh, yeah. We can. If you want.”

“I’m fine,” Kylo insisted for what felt like the hundredth time that day. He couldn’t believe that even the Knights were bothering him about his mood.

“You’re not,” Gavia said. “Now, did you want us all to hug you before we leave?”

Kylo didn’t answer. He just went upstairs to his room. A hug actually sounded like it might have been nice, but he wasn’t sure if Gavia had been serious about that offer. Given that they were never very affectionate with each other, he thought she might have just been mocking him and he didn’t want the others to know that he really would have appreciated a hug.

With his plans for that night ruined, he really didn’t know what else to do. He briefly considered calling Rey and asking her to pick him up. Maybe she’d take him somewhere where he could get into a fight. But she’d probably stop him. And he didn’t really want to be around people. But sitting around and doing nothing would drive him crazy.

He was thinking about ordering a pizza and watching a movie when there was a knock on the door. At first, he didn’t move, since he wasn’t expecting anyone. Probably someone with a petition or something. But then they knocked again, louder. About two seconds later, the doorbell rang. 

Realizing they weren’t going to leave until he answered, he got up and headed downstairs. It was probably one of the Knights and they forgot their keys or something. But when he opened the door, he saw that Rey was standing there.

“Come on, Kylo,” she said, grabbing his arm and pulling him out the door. “You’re coming with me.”

Kylo didn’t even have a chance to argue. She had him out the door and then pulled his keys out of his pocket. She locked the door and then pulled him over to her car and shoved him in the backseat. Rey got into the front passenger seat, as her friend Rose was driving.

“What are you doing?” he asked once they were moving. “Where are we going?”

“Just shut up,” Rose said.

“We’re gonna make you have fun,” Rey threatened. “And we’re not taking you home until you smile. So how long we keep you out for is totally up to you.”

“Did you have to make me sit back here?” he asked as he tried to arrange his legs so he was comfortable in the car. 

“Yep,” Rose said. “Now stop complaining or we move the seats back. 

“You wouldn’t be able to reach the pedals,” Kylo said. He immediately regretted it because Rose leaned the back of the seat all the way down. Cursing, he wiggled his way out from under the seat to move behind Rey. There was less leg room, but it was more comfortable than being under the seat.

They finally parked and Kylo immediately recognized where they were - a restaurant and bar that he’d gone too quite often when he was younger. He hadn’t been there in about ten years, not since he was fifteen. Usually, Luke would take him and Rey, although there were a few times that his parents joined them. He had no idea that Rey still went to that restaurant, as he hadn’t even thought about it in years.

At least now he was old enough to drink.

All thoughts of drinking went right out of his mind when he saw Finn and Poe sitting together. Or more accurately, Finn was halfway in Poe’s lap and they were making out. Although he’d seen Rey kiss Poe before, he didn’t think it was any of his business to tell Finn. But if Finn was cheating on Rey, then he definitely had to do something.

He stormed over to the table and slammed his hands down on it, which startled Finn and Poe. Although they looked a bit embarrassed, Finn remained half-draped over Poe.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Kylo shouted at Finn. “You can’t do this to Rey!”

“Kylo!” Rey yelled to get his attention. “Calm down! It’s okay.” She slid into the booth next to Poe, kissed him and then leaned over Poe to kiss Finn as well. 

“What?” Kylo stared at them, not sure what he just saw. Although several things started to make sense. The way the three of them were always hanging out together, the way Rey spoke about both of them, Rey kissing Poe… he probably should have realized what was going on between them before, but he’d never really thought it was a possibility.

“We’re dating,” Poe explained, putting his arms around both Finn and Rey. “The three of us. We’re together.”

“How long has that been going on for?” Kylo asked. He really hoped the answer wasn’t going to be something like several years. He’d hate to have been that oblivious. He sat down in the booth next to Finn, but he remained as close to the end as possible.

“You really didn’t know?” Rose asked. She was sitting across from him and next to Rey. 

“It’s only been about six months,” Rey said. “We haven’t really told a lot of people.”

“Does Luke know?”

“No,” Rey said softly. “Don’t tell him! I’ll tell him when we’re ready. But I’m not sure how he’ll take it.”

“If he takes it badly, just remind him that he’s lucky that’s the worst you’ve done. Then bring up some of my highlights.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Rey said. 

The others started talking about other things, and Kylo just tuned them out. He caught a few snippets about Rose and Finn’s college classes and Poe told them about some of his latest animal pick ups that he’d done. At first, they tried to include him, but Kylo didn’t have anything to say and eventually they just left him alone.

They ordered food and drinks and Rey and Rose decided to go to the arcade while they waited. They invited him, but he really didn’t feel like playing games. Although if Finn and Poe started making out again, he might have to join them just to get away from them. But they kept talking like he wasn’t even there, and Kylo just drank his beer.

Eventually, a large pizza along with wings and a large basket of fries arrived. When they’d ordered, Kylo had only ordered a beer, saying he wasn’t hungry, but now that the food was in front of him, he regretted that choice. But he’d survive until he could get home.

He was looking somewhere over everyone else’s heads, not really caring what he was looking at as long as he didn’t have to look at the others. He felt a sharp kick to his shin, which brought his attention back to Rey, because he knew that she was the one who kicked him.

“Aren’t you going to eat?” Rey asked.

“I’m not hungry,” he muttered.

“Sure you aren’t, buddy,” Poe said. He put a piece of pizza on a plate and handed it over to Kylo. “Here. We ordered enough for you too.”

“Because we knew you were going to be stupid and refuse to order anything,” Rey said.

Kylo opened his mouth, ready to argue and insist that he was not hungry, but he realized it was pointless. And they were right. He was hungry so he just quietly started to eat his pizza. When he finished, Rey passed him some fries and wings, and Kylo accepted whatever was put in front of him.

Once they finished their meal, the others decided to go back to the arcade. Poe went to the bar to get more drinks and since Kylo had no interest in playing any games, he went with him, fully intending to stay at the bar until Rey was ready to take him home.

“You can’t stay here,” Poe said, ruining his plan. “If you don’t go back to the arcade, you know Rey will just come and drag you over there.”

Kylo sighed. Poe was right. Even though he really didn’t want to go to the arcade, he also didn’t want Rey to get any more irritated at him. And she’d end up getting her way no matter what. He could at least pretend like he wasn’t completely miserable.

He headed back to the arcade with Poe where Rey and Rose were competing in some kind of fighting game. Finn watched, cheering them on. Kylo didn’t really care, but then, Rey took his drink from him and pushed him towards the game.

“You’re next,” Rey said. “You and Finn and then I’ll play whoever wins!”

“I don’t really want to play,” he grumbled. But he knew it would be far easier to simply play the game and lose quickly than argue with Rey about it.

Once the game started, however, Kylo couldn’t just let himself lose. Even if he didn’t care about a stupid game, he wasn’t just going to lose. Not when he knew he could win. He managed to beat Finn, and then Rey came over and they fought. Rey won the first match and Kylo immediately demanded a rematch. 

After several rounds, they had both won an equal amount of matches and Rey refused to play again. She walked away from the game but before Kylo could challenge her to a different game, Poe asked him to play against him in a flying game. It actually looked like it might be a fun game so he agreed.

By the time he got back in the car, he actually was having a pretty good night. He hadn’t even thought about Hux at all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Check out the guide on how to not be Kylo [here.](https://coragyps.dreamwidth.org/5392.html)


	14. Chapter 14

When Snoke had said he would be asking some of their department for assistance, apparently, he had only meant Hux. He was the one who was doing all their research, making phone calls, and more often than not, ordering them lunch and usually dinner since they very rarely left the office at a decent hour. And since Hux was working very closely with them, he didn’t leave either.

Of course, most of the rest of the department was talking behind his back, calling him a suck up and some were even hoping that his work with the feds meant he’d leave soon. Hux tried not to care about any of the office gossip, although he did at least like to be aware of it. Director Sloane and Phasma were the only ones who knew he had no plans on leaving, and as far as Hux was concerned, they were the only ones who needed to know.

The other downside to working with Snoke was that he was putting in twelve hour days most of the time. Even though it was mostly office work, Hux still found himself exhausted. Mostly, he thought that was from dealing with Snoke - if the old man could learn how to say exactly what he meant instead of giving long-winded explanations every time he opened his mouth, Hux was pretty sure they would cut at least two hours off their days.

The other two feds - Peavey and Cannady - weren’t that much better. Hux had hardly seen them lift a finger to do any work, instead preferring to talk about how important their jobs were. At least they didn’t talk nearly as much as Snoke, although Hux wasn’t sure if it was possible for anyone to talk more than he did.

At least the case seemed to be wrapping up. Hux knew they had a suspect - he’d found the guy himself - and as far as he knew, they would be arresting him soon. Of course, they didn’t tell him when the arrest would happen nor would he be invited to go with them. Not that Hux wanted to spend any more time around the feds than he had to. Hopefully, they’d make the arrest and leave and things could go back to normal

And that would finally leave Hux free to see Ren again. He only hoped he wouldn’t be angry about the way they had left things last time. It really wasn’t Hux’s fault that Snoke and the others showed up when they did, but Hux really wouldn’t blame Ren if he was not happy to see him.

He knew he should have called him. Or the Skywalker Wildlife Center, since he didn’t actually have Ren’s number. He could have simply asked whoever answered the phone to let Ren know that he was working long hours and wouldn’t be able to see him until the case was over. But he never did, and he couldn’t help but think it was too late to call. He’d just have to see if Ren still liked him when he finally had a chance to see him again.

He was imagining how his reunion with Ren would go when he heard his name being called. He spun around in his chair and was already on his feet before he even saw Director Sloane standing in the doorway of her office. He walked over and he could hear Snoke’s voice coming from inside. That meant it would be a long meeting.

“Ah, yes,” Snoke said. “My favorite agent. Please, have a seat. I don’t know if you’ve given any thought to potentially coming to work for Fish and Wildlife, because there is definitely a place for someone like you on our team. I won’t be able to submit the paperwork until we’re back home, but I think it’s safe to say you can expect a job offer within a month.”

“I don’t need you poaching my best agents,” Sloane said. She took a seat behind her desk, but Hux remained standing. He really hoped it wouldn’t take that long.

“You wouldn’t want to hold him back, now would you? I would think you’d be happy to see one of your people - and one that you trained personally, if I’m not mistaken - rise to levels above this little agency. I can help him live up to his full potential.”

“No offense,” Hux interrupted, “but I still have no intention of taking a position elsewhere. Now, if that’s all you wanted to discuss, I do have other work to deal with.”

“Which I’m sure is very important,” Snoke said, “but I do have one other thing to discuss with you. Something case related, so I’m sure you’ll have no objections to this discussion. As you’re probably aware, we’ve nearly wrapped up our eagle case. What you probably don’t know is that whenever I’m in a new area, I like to look into other recent cases and see what’s been going on in the region. Make sure that none of the smaller agencies require additional federal assistance.”

“Okay,” Hux said, not sure what he was getting at. He knew that all of his cases were perfect. Not all of them ended the way he’d wanted, but no one had a perfect rate of solved cases and convictions. His was probably better than most. And there was nothing wrong with his paperwork.

“I did take a special interest in looking through your cases in particular, and I found your work to be quite excellent. Of course, that would be for any of your official cases. As I was looking into your work, I noticed you seemed to start an investigation into one of your local rehab centers. The Skywalker Wildlife Center. And at first, I couldn’t figure out why. There was no case there that you should have been looking at, but then I realized that you have something of a vigilante on your hands here.”

“I wouldn’t exactly say that,” Hux said. He definitely didn’t want to have this conversation with Snoke. It probably wouldn’t be too hard for someone to figure out that he had pointed Ren in the direction of the man leaving out large amounts of poison. And if Snoke had figured that out, he could be in real trouble.

“It was interesting that you would be looking into this person,” Snoke continued. “After all, crimes of that nature are not technically your jurisdiction, and I must say that I was a little surprised you didn’t turn over what evidence you had to someone with the authority to make an arrest.”

“I didn’t really have any evidence,” Hux said. Which was technically true. He knew it was Ren, but there wasn’t anything that he could bring up in court. No one would prosecute Ren based on what Hux did know. “And since it really wasn’t my business, I just dropped it.”

“Of course,” Snoke said. “But I can make it my business, and I am very interested in locating this person. I’d like for you to turn over whatever information you do have about this case so I can investigate further.”

“Just give it to him,” Sloane said. She must have known that Hux was going to argue. He didn’t want to give Snoke anything about Ren, but he didn’t have much of a choice.

“All right,” he said. “It might take me a little while to gather everything. Since it wasn’t an official case, I didn’t keep everything as organized as usual.” Which was a lie, but no one had to know. Or at least Snoke didn’t have to know. Judging by the look Sloane was giving him, she didn’t believe that for a second.

“I look forward to seeing what you have,” Snoke said. “Even if you weren’t able to learn his identity, I feel fairly confident that I will.”

“Yeah, I’ll go see what I can find,” Hux said. He turned and left, cursing himself. He never should have made any sort of notes about the case. If he ended up getting Ren in trouble, he’d never forgive himself. Ren would never forgive him either.

He returned to his desk and immediately found the files he had on Ren and his illegal activities. Fortunately, he’d saved everything, including files on everyone else that worked or volunteered at the Skywalker Wildlife Center. Hux decided he’d just include all of them, even those that no one would consider as a suspect. He also decided to remove his personal notes about everyone, because he didn’t need Snoke knowing he suspected Ren. Well, he more than suspected. He knew it was him, but he couldn’t prove it.

Once he made sure that there wasn’t anything particularly damning in his files, he sent them over to Snoke. He really wished he had Ren’s number so he could give him a heads up that he was about to be under investigation. That was definitely a message he couldn’t leave with Skywalker or anyone else. He’d just have to hope that Ren was careful enough to not get caught.

He tried to distract himself from thoughts of Ren by working on other things, but he couldn’t stop thinking about him. If Ren got in trouble, it would be his fault. He had to do something to warn him. But the only way he knew how to contact him was to show up in person at the Center. Surely he could come up with some excuse to go over there.

Hux started looking through some new cases, hoping he might find one that gave him an excuse to go. Or at least to have Phasma go. With Snoke around, Hux knew he may not personally get the chance to go, but he could trust Phasma to deliver the message.

Before he could find a good case that would send her down there, he saw Snoke approaching him. He suppressed a groan and hoped that he wouldn’t want to talk about Ren or anything involved the Skywalker Wildlife Center. His hopes were quickly dashed when Snoke dropped a file on his desk with Ren’s picture on the very top.

“What’s this?” Hux asked, keeping his voice as even as possible.

“Why don’t you tell me all about Ben Solo?” Snoke suggested. “I’m really surprised that he didn’t stand out as one of your potential suspects. I think it’s pretty clear given his past troubles that he’s a likely suspect.”

“That’s what I thought too,” Hux said, pushing the file out of his way so he could continue working without Ren’s face staring up at him. “But there was absolutely no real evidence that it’s him. There’s other people that work there and it could just as easily be any of them.”

“That is true. That Finn Jackson also seems like he could be causing some trouble. After all, he’s had some past run-ins with the police. And of course, he was in the foster system for years. It only makes sense that he’d be up to no good.”

“Yes, I looked at him too,” Hux said. He didn’t bother to inform Snoke why he was wrong about Finn. Maybe he’d waste his time looking into him, and of course, Snoke was likely too old to even think of checking social media pages.

“You had two possible suspects. Why didn’t you look into either of them?”

“Like you said, it’s not my jurisdiction. I was only looking into it out of curiosity. But I really didn’t have the time to look into it anymore.”

“I see. Well, as I have mentioned, I am quite interested in finding the person responsible for these crimes. I think I’d like to talk to this Ben Solo in person. Since you’re familiar with the Skywalker Wildlife Center, perhaps you would be able to bring him in?”

“Yeah, I can do that,” Hux said, hoping he didn’t sound too eager. It was far from an ideal situation, and he fully expected Ren to be angry with him for showing up only to bring him into his office for an interrogation, but at least he would have a chance to warn him.

“Very good,” he said. “And just to make sure everything goes smoothly, I’ll send Agent Peavey with you.”

“I’m more than capable of bringing him in myself,” Hux responded. “Or I could bring Phasma along.”

“I think it’s for the best if someone from Fish and Wildlife went with you,” Snoke insisted.

“That’s fine,” Hux said, acting like he didn’t even care. “I just wouldn’t want to waste your people’s time.”

The entire drive to the Skywalker Wildlife Center, Hux tried to think of a way to warn Ren with Peavey there. But he wouldn’t even be able to say much to him. If Snoke found out that they were friends - if that’s even what they were - then it would not look good. He’d just have to hope that Ren could figure it out. The only plus side was that Peavey didn’t say much to him so he could at least think.

When Hux got out of the car, he noticed that Peavey remained inside and for a moment, he hoped that he would stay there, but as he walked to the main doors, he heard the car door slam shut. So much for that plan. He didn’t wait for Peavey and headed over to Ren’s side of the building and found him in the kitchen area, where he was skinning a rabbit.

“Hux!” he dropped both his knife and the rabbit when he looked up. At first, he just looked surprised, then he returned his attention to his task. “What are you doing here?”

“I’m sorry,” Hux said, glancing to see if Peavey had found him yet. He could see that he was on his way but still out of earshot. “Just remember they don’t actually know anything.”

“What?”

“Mr. Solo,” he said, speaking much louder and projecting his voice. “I’d like for you to come with us. We’d like to get something cleared up.”

“What?” Ren didn’t move. He stood there, one hand on the rabbit and his other hand dripping bloody water on the floor. 

“Is this him?” Peavey asked from behind him. “Sir, please put that down and come with us.”

“I’m in the middle of something,” Ren grumbled. He grabbed a flap of rabbit skin and pulled it back. Fortunately, it wasn’t the first time Hux had seen Ren do that and he didn’t even flinch, but he heard Peavey taking a step back.

“What the hell are you doing?” Peavey shouted.

“What’s it look like?” Ren muttered as he continued.

Knowing that he wouldn’t stop until he’d actually finished skinning and gutting - and probably not until he’d cut it up and fed it to the animals - Hux stepped forward and put a hand on Ren’s arm, stopping him. 

“It’s going to be much easier if you just come with us now,” he said softly. “Let’s go.”

Ren didn’t move and for a moment, Hux thought he might refuse, but then he put the rabbit down, removed his gloves and washed his hands. After drying them on the front of his jeans he walked out of the room. Since Peavey decided to walk in front of them, Hux took the opportunity to grab Ren’s hand. It seemed to startle him, but he left his hand where it was and they held onto each other’s hands until they were outside.

Hux opened up the back door of his car and motioned for Ren to get in. He hesitated but got inside. The entire ride back to the office, Hux just wanted to tell Ren that he was sorry that he hadn’t seen him or called him to tell him how he felt. But he knew he couldn’t say anything with Peavey there. He hated that Ren was so close and he still couldn’t even talk to him.

Once they arrived at the office, Hux was very careful not to stand too close to Ren. He had to pretend he was any other suspect. There were cameras everywhere and he didn’t want anyone knowing that there was anything going on between him and Ren. Or that there might be something going on between them. Hux really wasn’t sure himself. 

“I’ll take him to one of the interrogation rooms,” Peavey said once they were inside.

“Why?” Hux asked. “He’s here under his own free will. He’s not under arrest. I’ll just have him sit at my desk.”

“Very well,” Peavey said. He didn’t seem happy about it but he walked off, presumably to get Snoke and Hux led Ren to his desk. He’d hoped to talk to Ren a bit more about what was going on, but Snoke arrived very quickly and pulled up a chair.

“So you must be Ben Solo,” Snoke said. “Your mother is Senator Leia Organa-Solo, correct? I’ve met her on a few occasions. I knew she had a son, but I never quite imagined he’d be in trouble. Especially not with me.”

“I didn’t do anything,” Ren said. “I was just at work. Feeding animals. If there’s any blood on me, it’s from a rabbit. It’s not human or anything.”

“That’s not what this is about,” Snoke said. As he continued on about Ren’s supposed crimes, Hux tried to look busy at his desk. He didn’t want Snoke to know he was interested in what they said.

Every time Snoke tried to get anything out of Ren, he just claimed he had no idea what he was talking about. But then Snoke started to bring up the latest reports of attacks by someone in black robes and a helmet. Ren’s usual alibi was just being at work, but Hux knew that for some of those, he was very likely the alibi. He just hoped Ren didn’t say that, but he was going to need a better alibi than being at work where he rarely saw or spoke to anyone.

“And what about three nights ago, Mr. Solo? Were you at work then as well?”

“Actually, I wasn’t,” Ren said. “I was out with my cousin and her friends. I can give you the name of the restaurant. So you can go look at their security footage if you want.”

Hux couldn’t help but smirk. Snoke hadn’t yet figured out there were multiple people running around beating people up and he had no intention of enlightening him. And he was glad that Ren had a solid alibi that didn’t involve him. He was also glad that Ren had other people to spend time with. He seemed like such a loner that Hux had worried he’d been alone since he’d been busy at work.

“Well, Mr. Solo, I believe that’s all I need from you right now. But I’ll need you to be available as I’m sure I’ll have more questions for you soon enough. I’ll have Agent Hux take you back.”

“I’ll call an Uber,” Kylo muttered, standing up and heading towards the door. Hux was immediately on his feet and heading after him. There was no way he was letting him take an Uber when he could finally get him alone instead.

“You’re not paying for a ride,” Hux said. 

“You can pay for it then,” Ren said. He was looking at his phone and Hux grabbed it from his hands and started walking to his car.

“If you want your phone back, get in.”

Hux half-expected Ren to walk away from him without his phone and simply walk back to the Skywalker Wildlife Center, but he eventually got in the car and slammed the door shut. He didn’t put his seat belt on, but Hux decided he would let him sulk. He’d just have to drive very slow to make sure they didn’t wreck, which meant he’d have more time to talk to Ren.

If Ren would even talk to him.

“I’m really sorry about all that,” Hux said as he handed him his phone back.

“Sure you are.”

Hux fell silent. Clearly, Ren was angry with him and not in any mood to talk. He didn’t want to push him, but he did need to explain. About quite a few things, but he wanted to at least start with what had just happened.

“I didn’t mean for that to happen. The feds have been here investigating a different case and they heard about you. I tried telling them there was no evidence, but Snoke didn’t listen. I really am sorry.”

Ren didn’t respond and once again, Hux gave him some time. But he couldn’t just not talk the entire time they were driving. He had so much to say to him. The trouble was knowing where to start.

“I wanted to call you,” Hux said. They were nearly halfway to the Center and Hux suspected he wouldn’t have a chance to tell Ren everything he wanted to say, so he started with what he thought was important. “I didn’t mean to just disappear like that. Work got busy with the feds being here. And as it turns out, I don’t actually have your number.”

“You’re a cop,” he muttered. “You could have found it.”

At least he was speaking to him. That was progress. Hux only hoped that his anger would fade and they’d eventually go back to how they were, although he suspected that might take some time. Surely, Ren no longer trusted him.

“I can’t just look up phone numbers,” he said. “It’s not like I can put your name in a computer and just have it spit out a phone number. There’d be quite a bit of paperwork involved and people who would ask why I need it. And “calling a friend” is not an acceptable reason to look up someone’s phone number. Not to mention that would be unethical.”

“You still could have called.”

“I’m not sure how. I already told you I had no way to call.”

“I really don’t need to hear your excuses.”

“Okay, then what’s your excuse? Why didn’t you call me? I know I gave you my card. You have my number. Both my cell and my work number.”

“Figured you didn’t like me,” Ren muttered. “First I thought you were just busy and then I didn’t hear from you, so yeah, I thought you just didn’t want to talk to me anymore.”

“That wasn’t what happened at all. I’ve been helping the feds with a case. I wanted to see you, but I didn’t have the time. Usually, by the time I was out of the office, the only thing I had the energy to do was go home and fall in bed. Even then, I probably would have gone down to the center if I thought you would have been there at such hours.”

“Yeah, well, you could have tried.”

“Yes, Ren, you’re right. I could have shown up and left a note on the door for you. I could have tried finding your phone number. I could have shown up at your house. I could have called the Center and left a message. There’s probably a hundred things I could have done better, and I didn’t. I realize I fucked up. I don’t know what else you want me to say.”

They fell back into silence and they didn’t speak again until Hux turned on the road to the Skywalker Wildlife Center. The conversation hadn’t gone where Hux hoped it would, but he really wasn’t surprised that Ren was far from happy with him. And he knew he wasn’t going to like the last thing that Hux had to talk to him about.

“I know you don’t want to talk about this,” he said. “But I really want to ask you to be careful with your illegal activities. Snoke suspects you and is far too interested in you. He’ll be watching you very closely. I can let you know when he leaves, but please, Ren. Be careful.”

“Why do you even care?”

Hux pulled into the parking lot and as soon as he parked, Ren opened the door and got out. Hux watched him go for a moment, thinking he just needed some time. But he didn’t know when he’d get the chance to see him again. It might not be until Snoke left. And he’d already let one chance slip by. He wasn’t about to let another one pass.

He got out of the car and ran after Ren, stopping him just outside the door to the Center. Hux grabbed him by the arm and spun him around and threw an arm around his neck and pulled him close. Without giving it a second thought, he finally kissed him. It was quick, nothing more than a quick peck on the lips, but he at least managed to finally do it.

When he let Ren go, he stood there, staring at him. Hux didn’t really know what to do either and couldn’t think of anything to say. Not wanting to stand around looking like an idiot, Hux took off and went back to his car.

It wasn’t how he imagined his and Ren’s first kiss would be, but he’d finally done it. At least one thing had gone right that day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some talk of carnivore food and bunny pictures can be found on my [dreamwidth](https://coragyps.dreamwidth.org/5788.html)


	15. Chapter 15

Kylo had been doing very well at not thinking about Hux. Ever since he’d gone out with Rey and her friends, things had gotten better, but then, Hux had shown up. And that made it impossible for Kylo to think about anything else. Especially with how odd the entire interaction had been.

First, Hux tried to warn him, then he brought him in for questioning, but had held his hand while taking him away. And then he’d made all kinds of excuses about why he hadn’t contacted him. And finally, he had kissed him.

Kylo really didn’t know what to think about the entire chain of events. He wanted to be mad at him still, but as far as he could tell, Hux actually did like him. And despite everything, Kylo really liked Hux as well. It wasn’t as if he could find anyone better. Who else could know as much about him as Hux did and not bat an eye?

He still had to consider that it might be a very bad idea to get involved with him. After all, he’d first met Hux because he was investigating the Knights of Ren. And a federal officer had just brought him in to question him about those same activities. Even though Hux claimed he had nothing to do with it, Kylo had to wonder.

Maybe it really was just an attempt to learn more about the Knights of Ren. But if that were the case, Kylo thought that he’d already have been arrested. After all, even though he hadn’t admitted to anything, Hux knew the truth. If he really wanted to, he probably could have gotten the proof he needed to arrest him. But he hadn’t.

And he’d kissed him. He wouldn’t have done that if he didn’t actually like him, would he? Or holding his hand. Or warning him when he’d first arrived to bring him in. All of that seemed to indicate that Hux really did like him, but Kylo really couldn’t be sure. Maybe he was a really good actor.

He was going back and forth on whether or not Hux actually liked him as he cleaned out an enclosure and had been absentmindedly scrubbing the same spot over and over again when Rey walked in.

“We need to talk,” she said as she stepped inside.

“We do?” He moved on from the spot he’d been scrubbing and continued cleaning.

“I was just questioned by federal officers,” she said. “About you. You need to stop.”

He stopped scrubbing the wall and put the brush down. “There. Is that better?”

“You know what I’m talking about.”

“They don’t know anything,” Kylo said. He picked the brush up and started cleaning again. “They’re just trying to scare me.”

“I’ll tell Luke,” Rey threatened. “And your parents.”

“Do that, then.” He knew that they would probably believe Rey if she told them and he’d probably end up getting chewed out by them, but he just didn’t care at the moment. He couldn’t think about anything besides Hux.

Rey obviously got the hint that he wasn’t going to talk about the Knights or anything else and she left. And if she told anyone else, he’d end up getting yelled at but he could deal with it. No one had any proof that he was up to anything.

Just because Rey had told him to stop - and Hux too - he decided he was going to go out with the Knights. He’d had several young rabbits come in from the same place and none of them had made it. And he knew that it had been intentional. He also knew that the person responsible would never get in any serious trouble over it. After all, to most people, they were just rabbits.

But Kylo would make sure they never even thought about harming an animal again. When he got home, he found that the most of the others were not home yet. Only Sygnus and Crotalus were there. When Kylo told them about the person he was going after, Sygnus agreed to go with him, while Crotalus claimed that there was someone else she was planning on taking out with Zephius later on.

Kylo and Sygnus quickly changed into their Knight’s clothing and headed out. Fortunately, it was a nearby address which meant that they wouldn’t spend several hours getting to the area. On the downside, it was in a neighborhood, which meant more chances of witnesses, but it wasn’t the first time they had to act with potential witnesses around.

Unlike when they did things in more rural areas, they parked their motorcycles nearby since they’d likely need to make a quick getaway and there wasn’t any forest to hide in. It was at least dark enough that they shouldn’t be too obvious. 

There was a tall chain-link fence around the yard and Kylo pushed the heavy gate open. Before he could proceed towards the house, Sygnus grabbed his arm and Kylo stopped and looked back at him.

“Something seems off,” he said. 

“What do you mean?” Kylo asked. He looked around but didn’t notice anything.

“The gate. The fence. It’s new.”

“So?”

“Nothing else here is. It almost looks abandoned. And I don’t think that’s the kind of gate most people have for their house.”

Kylo looked back at the gate and then around the rest of the yard. Sygnus was right. The lawn was overgrown and filled with weeds and the house looked like it was starting to fall into disrepair. 

“Maybe the guy spent all his money on the fence.” He pulled his arm free from Sygnus and continued towards the house, but Sygnus didn’t follow. He remained on the other side of the gate. “Aren’t you coming?”

“Yeah,” Sygnus said. The gate had swung closed and when he tried to push it open, it didn’t move. “What the fuck?”

“Fuck,” Kylo said. Sygnus’s instincts had been right - there was definitely something wrong. “Get out of here, Syg!”

“What about -”

“Go!”

Kylo kicked at the gate as Sygnus took off. At the same time, the lights came on outside the house and the front door opened. Kylo didn’t need to look to know what was coming. Instead, he started climbing up the fence, ignoring the shouts behind him to stop and put his hands up.

When he got to the top of the fence, he noticed that there was barbed wire at the top, but it didn’t even make him hesitate. He’d much rather get cut on the wire than deal with the cops below. He went over the fence, feeling the wire cut into his arm and tear his clothes as he went, but he made it over and dropped to the other side.

Sygnus was already gone by the time he made it to his bike and he didn’t even look back as he took off. He took several extra turns, just in case he was being followed, but as far as he could tell, he was clear. Just to make sure, he stopped a few miles from his house and waited, but he didn’t see any cops. Apparently, they hadn’t planned very well.

Once he was certain he was in the clear, he made his way back home. Sygnus had made it back home already and apparently told the others what had happened because no one asked him about it. But Gavia took one look at his arm and demanded that he take off his clothes immediately.

She tended to the wound, but no one mentioned the problem that they were facing. The cops suspected them. Or at least Kylo. He didn’t have to tell the others that they would all have to be more careful. And that he probably had to stop going out for a while.

And Kylo also couldn’t help but wonder if Hux had anything to do with the trap he’d almost been caught in.

\---

It didn’t come as a surprise to Kylo that he was brought in for questioning again. He’d planned for it, as had the other Knights. He and the four that he lived with all agreed that they were home all night and had just stayed in playing video games. It might not be the best alibi, but at least no one could prove otherwise.

He didn’t know whether he was relieved or disappointed that it wasn’t Hux who came to get him. Instead, it was two agents from Fish and Wildlife. Which probably wasn’t a good sign. But Kylo didn’t know if it would be better or worse if Hux had been there.

Kylo was fairly certain that the reason he was taken immediately into an interrogation room was because Hux wasn’t there to insist otherwise. It wasn’t his first time in such a room and he had the feeling it wouldn’t be his last. He just kept telling himself that they didn’t know anything and they were only going to try to pressure him into giving himself up.

He knew that the only reason they were making him wait in the room for so long was in hopes of getting him restless enough that he’d just say whatever it took to get out of there. Of course, he did want to get out of there, but he wasn’t about to tell them anything. While he waited, he put his head down on the table. If he was stuck there, he might as well catch up on some sleep.

He didn’t actually manage to fall asleep, but when the door open, he looked up slowly as if he had just woken up. The same ancient agent who’d questioned him before - Snoke - walked in and sat down at the table across from him.

“Can I go now?”

“I’m afraid we’re just getting started, Mr. Solo,” Snoke said. “I think it’s very interesting that when injured animals come into the Skywalker Wildlife Center, someone is going out to the addresses those animals came from and assaulting people. Even when there’s no one that actually lives at the address.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Kylo said. Of course, now that Snoke said that, it made perfect sense how they’d known where to wait for them. How they’d known how to lay the trap. The fence and the gate that Sygnus had said were new. They had likely been placed there to catch him.

“Yes, you keep saying that. We both know that’s not true, however. I think that perhaps you should make things easier on both of us and simply confess.”

“Confess to being bored out of my mind? Yeah, okay. You’re boring me.”

“Oh, Mr. Solo,” Snoke said with a slight chuckle, “you’re not getting out of this that easily. That’s a very interesting cut on your arm there. Would you care to tell me how you got that?”

“No,” Kylo said.

“Well, if that’s how you want this to go, then I suppose we’ll just have to do it the hard way. It’ll be much easier if you just tell me instead of making me compare your DNA to that from a recent crime scene.”

“Go ahead,” Kylo said with a shrug. “But I’m not going to give consent, so you’re gonna need a warrant.”

“Ah, so you’re familiar with how this works. I can, of course, get a warrant. I thought you might like to get out of here sometime today.”

“It’s kinda nice in here, actually,” Kylo said. “But you know, you must not be that good at your job if you haven’t figured out what happened to my arm.”

“I know exactly what happened to you,” Snoke said. “But I’d like to hear your explanation.”

“Yeah, well, if you didn’t realize it, I work with wild animals. The kinds with talons and shit. And sometimes, shit happens and you get cut. This was from a Red-tailed Hawk.”

“Don’t you wear gloves?”

“Yeah. On my left hand.” Kylo couldn’t help but roll his eyes. “Kinda hard to give medications with a glove on both hands.”

“Perhaps you need better training,” Snoke suggested. Kylo knew he’d end up being insulted at some point. He just had to remind himself not to react to it. “I would think someone who knew what they were doing could avoid such a situation.”

Kylo just shrugged in response. He knew if he opened his mouth, he was going to end up saying something he would regret. Calling Snoke an idiot wasn’t going to help, and punching him wouldn’t either, although he really wanted to do both.

“Let’s talk about where you were last night,” Snoke said. 

“At home,” Kylo said. “My roommates were all there too.”

“Isn’t it odd for five adults to be living together like that?”

“Obviously, you haven’t had to deal with this economy.”

“Or perhaps I know how to save money and not waste it on frivolous things. Maybe if you tried that, you could afford a place of your own.”

“I’ll pass.”

Before Snoke could continue with his questions, the door opened and Hux walked in. When he saw him, he froze and Kylo couldn’t take his eyes off of him. Hux seemed to be in the same predicament - neither of them moved or spoke.

“Ah, my protege,” Snoke said with a smile. Hux turned to Snoke, a look of confusion on his face. 

“Agent Cannady said you wanted to see me,” Hux said.

“Yes, that’s right. I wanted you to know that all your hard work has paid off. As you can see, we’ve already brought Ben Solo in for questioning. If it wasn’t for all the effort you put into this case, we wouldn’t be here.”

Kylo couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He’d wanted so badly to believe that Hux actually liked him, that he’d held his hand and kissed him because he wanted to have some kind of relationship. But he’d just been working for Snoke the entire time.

He couldn’t ever remember feeling so betrayed. At least he could look back at his father’s actions and see that he had at least actually cared, even if he was terrible at showing it. But Hux had manipulated him and used him. He’d led him on. He’d even kissed him so he’d let his guard down and trust him. And it had worked.

If Kylo had had a weapon, he was fairly certain he would have turned it on Hux in that moment. 

“That’s all,” Snoke said, dismissing Hux. “And now, back to you, Mr. Solo. Now that you know just how much trouble you’re in, I think I’d like to make you an offer. You see, I can keep you out of trouble. Better yet, I can keep you from dragging your mother’s name through the mud. I’m sure you’d like to spare her the headache of dealing with a scandal. All you need to do is make a confession and then sign one little agreement to work for me. And that’s it. No jail time, no arrest, nothing.”

Kylo didn’t say anything. He’d heard Snoke’s offer, but he really didn’t care about it. All he could think about was how Hux had betrayed him. And he’d been stupid enough to fall for his tricks. He should have known he couldn’t trust a cop. Rey had told him as much, but he hadn’t listened. 

“I’ll give you some time to think about the offer,” Snoke said. “Remember, all you have to do is work for me. You won’t even have to leave home. At least not initially. I’ll simply let you know when you’re services are needed. Of course, we can work out those details before you give me your confession.”

Kylo stopped listening to him. He didn’t care what Snoke was offering him. Before he knew it, he was being led from the interrogation room and into a car. He didn’t want to cry, not in front of anyone, but he couldn’t hold back his tears. He couldn’t believe he’d been stupid enough to trust Hux. Or that he’d been stupid enough to fall for him.

He should have known.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little about animal attacks can be found on my [dreamwidth :)](https://coragyps.dreamwidth.org/6221.html)


	16. Chapter 16

Hux couldn’t get the way Ren looked at him out of his head. He’d looked so hurt and so angry. If Snoke hadn’t been there, Hux thought Ren might have taken a swing at him. But it was Snoke who had made everything go so very wrong. Which had surely been his intention. He’d wanted Ren to think he’d been working against him, although Hux couldn’t imagine why.

He’d hoped that he’d be able to take Ren home after Snoke had finished with him, but he saw Peavey leading him away from the interrogation room. Instead, he just had to watch as Ren walked by, looking utterly defeated.

Somehow, Hux would have to let him know that it was all a lie, that Snoke was just manipulating him. He hoped Ren hadn’t said anything. Surely he was smarter than that. But if Ren wanted to get back at him, then it would be fairly easy. After all, Hux had given him a tip about who to go after. And if Ren admitted to it, it wouldn’t be too hard to connect all the dots.

“You see, Agent Hux? That’s how you do it.” 

He nearly jumped at Snoke’s voice behind him, but he managed to stay in his seat and calmly spun around to face him. “Do what?”

“Solo there was giving me all kinds of attitude, but all I had to do was let him know that I had evidence and remind him that he has no friends here, and it crushed his spirit. You did actually play a significant role in that, although I’m not sure if you’ve realized it. Solo had a thing for you. I believe he thought there was some kind of connection between the two of you, which meant it was very easy to turn that against him.”

“Yeah, I noticed,” Hux said before turning his attention back to his desk. He didn’t want to talk about how much Snoke had hurt Ren, because he didn’t want Snoke to realize that he was hurting as well.

“I think that you’ll also be valuable in finally getting his full confession,” Snoke continued. “Since you’re the one who is the most familiar with the Skywalker Wildlife Center, I’d like for you to go over there and plant some bugs.”

“Do you have a warrant?”

“Of course. I would never even think about planting bugs without it all being perfectly legal. Now if you don’t want to do it, I can simply have one of my people go in and plant them.”

“I just need to make sure it’s legal.”

“Do you really think I’d make you do something illegally?”

Hux just shrugged, not wanting to tell him that he was almost certain of it. “Why do you need surveillance? If he’s ready to confess as it is, why go through the trouble?”

“Because it’ll give us concrete proof that he won’t be able to argue his way out of,” Snoke said. “This will make sure that we have him.”

“I don’t know why you’re so set on catching him,” Hux said. “He’s probably doing more to help stop wildlife crimes than we are. Everyone he beats up deserves it.”

“That’s not the point,” Snoke said. “I don’t particularly care about stopping him. In fact, I think his particular skills could come in quite useful. That’s what I’m after. If he’s in enough trouble, I’ll be able to use him as I see fit.”

“Oh.” Hux knew that he had to make sure his face and voice remained neutral. Snoke couldn’t know that that idea upset him.

“You see, it’s always helpful to have useful people owe you. And when someone like Ben Solo gets in trouble like this, it allows someone to own him. And I don’t think I need to tell you what you can do with someone like him, given the family he comes from.”

Hux really didn’t know exactly what he was planning. He’d have thought Snoke might have wanted to use him for muscle, but if it had something to do with his family, Hux had no idea. He’d only ever met his uncle and cousin, and he couldn’t see what use they would be to Snoke.

“How many bugs did you need me to plant?” he asked.

“I’ll leave that up to you,” Snoke said. “I’m sure you know the best places to gather information.”

Hux finished up what he was working on before going to pick up the surveillance equipment. It wouldn’t do for anyone to see him rushing to get to Ren. He couldn’t believe he’d been given such an easy chance to tell Ren about what was going on. He’d go to the Center, let him know that Snoke was manipulating him, and then tell him that he couldn’t talk about anything inside the Center. 

It was a perfect plan, he thought. The only thing that he could think of that might go wrong was that Ren might not want to listen to him, but he could surely make him listen at least long enough to warn him. Maybe he’d still be mad, but he would at least be able to tell him that he hadn’t been hanging out with him simply to gather information.

The one thing he hadn’t counted on was walking inside the Center and not finding Ren. Instead, he found Rey as she was walking out of an animal enclosure. She secured the door and then walked over to him.

“What do you want?”

“I need to talk to Ren,” he said.

“He doesn’t want to talk to you. You need to leave.”

“Listen,” he said, “whatever he told you about me, it’s not true. That federal agent was manipulating the both of us. He’s got it in for Ren and will do anything to get him. I need to warn him.”

“Why should I believe you? You hurt Kylo. You know that, right?”

“Yes, and I’m sorry about that. I didn’t want to. But he needs to know that I’m not helping Snoke bring him in. I have nothing to do with that. Well, I didn’t. Not until now.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’ve been ordered to plant surveillance,” he said. “It’s very important that Ren and everyone else is very careful about what they say. They’ll only be on the rehab side since that’s where he works, but it’s possible they’ll send someone else to add more later, so be very careful.”

“Uh, thanks?”

“Where is Ren? I really should tell him in person.”

“That’s really not a good idea,” Rey said. “He’s really pissed off right now. But you wouldn’t have told me about all this if you wanted him to get caught. So he’s at home. Don’t tell him I told you that though.”

“Thanks. And just in case he doesn’t listen to me, can you make sure he knows to be very careful about what he says?”

“Of course,” she said.

Hux was glad she had been easy to win over, as it made his job of planting the bugs much easier. She watched him, so she knew exactly where the bugs were, which included all the rooms where Kylo worked such as the medical room and kitchen. He also put one near the door since he knew that was a place that someone might pause and have a conversation. All in all, he was very thorough, since hopefully it wouldn’t matter. As long as Ren was warned that he was under surveillance, Hux thought everything just might work out.

Once he had finished, he went to his car and pulled up Ren’s address. He’d never been to his place before, but he’d looked up his address when he initially looked into him. It wasn’t too far from the Center, which meant he could stop quickly on his way back to the office and no one would be suspicious about him being gone too long.

He pulled up to the house, which was much larger than Hux was expecting. He’d thought it’d be a small, single story house, but it had two floors and at one point, was probably a really nice place. Ren clearly hadn’t taken the best care of it because the paint was old and the lawn hadn’t been mowed in sometime. That, at least, was what Hux would expect from Ren.

There was a sign over the doorbell that read “Broken Unless Your Delivering Food.” Hux cringed at the bad grammar and then rang the doorbell anyway. A man with light brown hair who was a little shorter than him opened the door.

“Hey, you’re that piece of shit,” he said loudly. He stepped outside and shut the door behind him. Hux almost expected Kylo to come out ready to fight, but he hadn’t expected his roommates to do the same. “You’d better get out of here.”

“I know he’s mad, but I really need to talk to him,” Hux said. “Just let me talk to him for two minutes.”

“Hey, Syg,” said someone from the door. Hux glanced over the man and saw a woman with short hair standing in the doorway. “If you’re gonna fight a cop, do it inside where no one can see. The others want a piece of him too.”

“You still want to come in?”

Hux answered by walking past him and into the house. The woman in the doorway let him in, although she also looked like she wanted to kill him. It might not have been his best idea, walking into a house full of people who hated him, but he needed to talk to Ren.

“Where’s Ren?” he asked.

“You’re gonna have to be more specific,” the woman said. “We’re all Ren.”

“You know who I mean.”

For several moments, he just stared at the woman. He was aware of the man who answered the door and another woman both watching him, but they didn’t seem to be planning on attacking him, despite what they made it sound like.

“I’m not leaving until I speak with him,” Hux said. 

“You sure you want to do that?” The woman asked. Hux didn’t answer and she just shrugged. “Right, well, we’re not responsible for what he does to you.”

A door slammed somewhere in the house and Hux realized how bad of a position he’d put himself in. Although he’d really only ever seen Ren’s gentle, caring side, he knew exactly what the man was capable of when he was angry. Given that he was currently angry at him, it probably wasn’t the best idea to walk into his house. But it was too late to do anything about that now.

He heard footsteps and then saw Ren walking down the stairs. Ren looked like he was ready to rip him apart, but Hux resisted the urge to take a step back. He might be angry - and Hux didn’t blame him - but he’d done nothing wrong and he’d have to listen to him.

“Ren, I -”

“Fuck you! You can’t just show up here! Not after what you did!” He stopped right in front of Hux, so close they were nearly touching. And despite the fact that Ren was shouting and looked like he wanted to murder him, Hux had to resist the urge to kiss him. 

“I didn’t do anything!” Hux said, speaking loudly but not quite shouting. 

“You expect me to believe that?”

“At this point, I don’t care what you believe!”

“Then what are you doing here?”

“I was ordered to plant bugs at the Skywalker Center. I wanted to warn you. It’s not safe to talk about things there.”

“You… what?” Ren seemed taken aback by that. Clearly, it was not what he expected.

“I know you’re mad, and we don’t have to talk now. But be careful about Snoke. I don’t know what he’s up to, but he’s after you.”

Without waiting for a response, Hux walked out the door. Things hadn’t gone as well as he’d hoped, but he knew they could have gone much worse. At least Ren hadn’t gotten violent with him. And hopefully he’d cool down once he realized that Hux had given him a warning about the surveillance. If not, well, it had been nice while it lasted.

Somehow, even after only a few months, Hux had trouble imagining going back to a life without Ren. He’d always liked his job, but before Ren came into the picture, he never would have described it as enjoyable. But having Ren around made it better. Even when he had to deal with some horrible things, Ren’s presence made it easier to handle. Part of if was knowing that Ren could and would take care of anyone that Hux couldn’t. But he also just liked the man.

If their relationship had been ruined so easily by Snoke’s interference, then Hux knew that it would have been doomed anyway. But that didn’t make him feel any less murderous towards Snoke. He was an old man - it should be fairly easy to take him out, but he had to be tougher than he looked. Not that Hux would actually do any more than hope for his demise.

When he arrived back at the office, his only plan was to avoid Snoke, but as soon as he walked in the door, Director Sloane called him into her office. And of course Snoke was there.

“What the hell, Armitage?” Sloane asked. As soon as he heard her use his first name, he knew something very serious had happened. He’d fucked up. His first thought was that there hadn’t actually been a warrant and he’d planted illegal devices, but he’d seen the warrant himself. If it was faked, then Snoke would be the one in trouble, yet he was smirking.

“Do you have any idea what kind of trouble you’re in? You can’t warn a suspect that he’s under surveillance! Why the hell would you do that?”

“What?” How could she have known? It wasn’t as if there was any tracking device on his car that would tell her he’d been to Ren’s and even if there was, she’d have no idea what he had said. Not unless there were bugs at Ren’s place. 

“I really wasn’t sure about the nature of your relationship with Solo,” Snoke started to explain right when Hux figured out himself what had happened. “I thought you might have actually been close to him and would refuse to plant bugs. Although I must admit, my first thought was that you’d do exactly what you did - plant them and then warn him about it. So of course, I had his residence bugged as well. Which means that not only did we get all sorts of information on him and his roommates, but we now also have you warning him.”

Hux saw his career flash before his eyes. With such a serious offense, he was done for. He’d be fired and unable to work in law enforcement ever again. No department would hire him, not that his experience was that relevant to most other law enforcement positions. In fact, wildlife crimes didn’t give him great experience for any other job. He had no idea what sort of place might hire him. Especially with his record.

“This is a most serious offense,” Snoke continued, a smile on his face, “but I think that we can find a way to make things work out. If you come work for me -”

“Absolutely not,” Sloane interrupted. “Yes, this is quite serious, but you’re not using this to take my best agent from me when he’s already expressed he has no wish to work for you. To me, it looks as if you’re manipulating him into becoming your lackey and I’m not letting that happen.”

“You can’t -”

“He’s still my agent, which mean I’m in charge of disciplinary measures. If you have a problem with the way I run things here, you can file a report.”

“We’ll see about that.”

Hux didn’t like the way he said that. Not that he liked anything about Snoke. And although he knew Sloane was likely to chew him out later, he was glad that she had his back where Snoke was concerned. Because if it came down to it, he knew he’d choose to work for Snoke instead of losing his job. He just hoped Sloane could keep him from his clutches.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Find some animal facts and a pigeon picture on my [dreamwidth](https://coragyps.dreamwidth.org/6497.html)!


	17. Chapter 17

When the federal agents came to pick him up, Kylo had fully expected it. He’d been waiting for them to arrive ever since Hux told him about the bugs at the Skywalker Wildlife Center. When they moved all their gear to Zephius’s place, he’d expected agents to jump out of the bushes and catch them red-handed.

It took them two days before they arrested him. Unlike before when they had just brought him in for questioning, they’d actually handcuffed him and read him his rights. He told himself that they’d had no evidence, but they must have known something that Kylo was unaware of if they’d arrested him. He’d thought of every conversation he’d had at work, wondering if maybe he’d let something slip. Or maybe Rey had said something. He couldn’t think of anything he’d said, but he also had no idea how long the bugs had been there.

He was surprised to see that they brought him to Hux’s office. And for a moment, he thought that it was a good thing. Maybe he’d see Hux and maybe he could help him. But he remembered that Hux didn’t care about him and had just been trying to get information.

Of course, that didn’t add up. If Hux really had been working for the feds all along, surely he wouldn’t have warned him about the bugs. Even Rey had said he’d sounded genuine. But the old federal agent had said that Hux was responsible for him being brought in. Why would he make that up? 

He had no idea how he felt about Hux anymore and he wished he could see him. It probably wouldn’t help him figure out if he liked or hated him, but he just wanted to see him again and say something to him. He knew it was too much to hope for that Hux would be the one handling his interrogation and sure enough, Snoke walked into the interrogation room.

“I knew I’d be seeing you again, Ben Solo,” Snoke said as he took a seat. “But that’s not the name you prefer to go by, is it? What is it now? Kylo Ren?”

Kylo didn’t respond. The only way he could have known that is if Hux had told him. He’d never legally changed his name, although he’d considered it, which meant only his friends knew his real name. So if Snoke knew it, then someone would have had to tell him. And as far as Kylo knew, Hux was the only one who could have.

“So, Kylo Ren, there’s a few ways this can go. One, you remain the stubborn child you are and go to jail. Two, you plead guilty, turn in your comrades and we can let you off with some community service. Or, the ideal situation, three. You keep doing what you’re doing, your friends remain safe, and this whole situation just sort of… disappears.” He waved his hand, and Kylo waited, knowing there was going to be a condition to that last option.

“All that I ask,” Snoke said, “is that when I have need of your services, you do what I ask. So, what do you say?”

“I still have no idea what you’re talking about.” No one had presented any evidence. As far as Kylo knew, they still had nothing. And he wasn’t going to take Snoke up on his offer unless he absolutely had to.

“Ah. I see you’re going with option one. I didn’t think you were the brightest person out there, but I didn’t think you were that stupid.”

“Yeah, well, you’re the one who hasn’t even told me what it is I’m supposed to have done. So maybe you’re the stupid one.”

“I know the charges were read to you when you were brought in.”

“But you haven’t even shown that you have any evidence. Sounds like you just got your same old bullshit and you’re just hoping I cave. Well, fuck you, old man. I’m not working for you.”

“Are you sure about that? What about your mother? Do you realize how hard it is for a politician’s career if they have family members in this kind of trouble? In fact, you could single handedly destroy her career if you go to jail. I can’t imagine the rest of your family will want you if you do that. You’ve already caused enough trouble as it is, and if you do that to your own mother who’s already sacrificed so much for you, your family will reject you, Kylo. You know that.”

“Shut the fuck up,” Kylo growled, barely holding back his anger. He knew he couldn’t let Snoke get to him, but he also knew he was right. His family had never quite understood him and if he ruined his mother’s career… he didn’t think any of them would speak to him again.

“Yes, you know it’s true, don’t you? Once we complete the search of your house, I’m sure we’ll have the last piece we need to put you away for a very long time, but I’m a generous man. So I’ll wait until we have all the evidence before I’ll no longer let you accept my offer.”

“Have fun with that,” Kylo muttered. He knew there was nothing to find at his house. Since Zephius and Crotalus didn’t live with them, it meant they had a place to store all of the Knights gear. And they didn’t really associate with either of them outside of Knight business, which meant there shouldn’t be much connection between them. 

But once he was left alone, Kylo couldn’t help but start to wonder if there was something he hadn’t thought of that he might have left behind. Maybe he’d gotten blood on something in the house and the feds would find it. He was fairly certain there was quite a bit of blood in the house, although it was more likely to be his or animal blood that he got on him from work. 

He mentally went through all the contents of his room and the shared spaces in the house. There was nothing at all that he could think of there that would point towards him. But that didn’t mean one of the others didn’t have something incriminating in their rooms. And although it shouldn’t be a problem for him, he knew that if one of his roommates got caught, he’d probably be right there with them since he was already suspected.

Eventually, Kylo’s thoughts drifted back to Hux. He knew that Hux had to be responsible for his arrest. How else would Snoke have known he called himself Kylo Ren? But he just couldn’t get past the warning or the hand holding or the kiss. None of that made sense if Hux was really trying to get him arrested. It didn’t even make sense that he might have been trying to seduce him in order to gain information. Why would he have taken things so slow? Why wouldn’t he have tried asking him about the Knights more?

When the door opened hours after Snoke had left, Kylo once again hoped that maybe Hux would walk in the door. Instead, a tall blonde woman walked in and stood in the doorway. He recognized her and was fairly certain she wasn’t a federal agent.

“Hey, you’re Hux’s partner, right?” he asked.

“Yeah. You’re free to go, Ren.” She held her hand out and he could see that she had his phone in her hand.

“I am?” That wasn’t what he’d expected to hear. Although he’d hoped for Hux, he’d expected one of the federal agents to question him some more and try to get him to accept Snoke’s offer. 

“Did I stutter? Come on. Get out of here.”

He stood up and headed for the door but stopped right after he took his phone back from her. Something didn’t seem quite right. “Wait,” he said. “Is this like… authorized? Or am I going to be on the run?”

“Seriously? Where do you even get an idea like that? Hurry it up and get out or I’m going to drag you out of here.”

Kylo didn’t doubt that she could so he walked out of the room and then Phasma led him towards the front door. As they passed through the office, Kylo looked around, hoping for a glimpse of red hair, but he didn’t see Hux anywhere. He could have asked Phasma, but didn’t want her to know that he was thinking about him.

“Can I ask why I’m being let go?” he asked as they made it to the front of the building.

“Watch the news,” Phasma said. She didn’t give any more explanation than that. 

Kylo watched her walk back into the building and then headed out the door. He unlocked his phone so he could call a ride, but as soon as he walked outside, he saw a very familiar van parked out front. He froze, not sure what to do, but he did know he’d much rather be under arrest than deal with his father who would surely lecture him the entire drive. He’d turned to head back into the building, ready to do whatever it took to get himself arrested again, but then he heard Poe’s voice calling his name.

When Kylo turned back to the van, he saw Poe walking around the front of it, waving at him. He didn’t move, still expecting Han to step out of the van. As far as he knew, Han didn’t let anyone else drive it. Not unless he’d been drinking and even then, it was a fairly short list of people allowed to drive.

“Come on, Kylo!” Poe said. “Get in!”

“Did you drive that?” Kylo asked, still not moving.

“Yeah,” he said. “Your dad let me borrow it. Now hurry up and get in.”

Kylo climbed into the passenger seat and tried not to think about how he’d never been allowed to drive Han’s van. There was really nothing to be jealous over - Kylo didn’t even want to drive the stupid thing - but he couldn’t help but feel like he still wasn’t good enough. Poe wasn’t even family and he was allowed to drive the van and that hurt.

“How’d you know to get me?” Kylo asked, trying to get his mind off the fact that his father still didn’t like him.

“Hux called me. Said you’d need a ride. I’m surprised he didn’t want to drive you himself. But maybe he was busy. And I wasn’t too far away anyway.”

Hux was another person Kylo didn’t really want to think about at the moment. But it did give him another thing to add into the “he really does like me” category. The more he thought about it, the more he realized that Hux probably had been telling the truth. Everything that Hux did seemed to indicate that he did like him. It was really only Snoke’s word that made him think that Hux had been trying to gather information, and if there was one thing he knew, it was that he couldn’t trust Snoke.

When Poe dropped him off at the Center, there was an unfamiliar car in the parking lot. He knew all the staff member’s vehicles and most of the volunteer’s as well. This was a vehicle he’d never seen before, and it was nice. He’d surely remember it. He immediately suspected that the feds might be there going through his stuff.

When he walked inside, everything looked normal. It didn’t look like anyone had been there to go through his stuff. Maybe they hadn’t searched his workplace, which was good. He couldn’t even imagine how angry Luke would be if a bunch of cops had been searching his Center. Maybe that car out front was a new volunteer or someone meeting with Luke. 

As he walked by Luke’s office, he immediately knew who the car belonged to and once again, he decided he’d rather still be under arrest.

“Kylo,” Leia said, standing up from behind Luke’s desk and walking over to him. She pulled him into a hug and he couldn’t help but return the gesture.

“I’m sorry,” he said immediately. “I didn’t mean to cause you any trouble. I didn’t even do anything. The cops just… I don’t know. They don’t like me I guess.”

“I know,” she said. She walked him over to one of the chairs and had him sit down. She sat in the chair next to him before she continued speaking. “I know exactly what you’ve been doing in your spare time. And before you ask, Rey didn’t tell me. It’s not that hard to figure out.”

“It’s not?”

“Not if someone knows you. Working with nature was supposed to help you calm down, Kylo. It wasn’t supposed to make you worse.”

“It’s not making me worse!” he said loudly. “I’m doing what I have to do! I can’t just let these people get away with what they’re doing to these animals! And if I don’t stop them, no one will!”

“What about your roommates?” Kylo hadn’t expected her to say that and didn’t know how to respond. Leia smiled and said, “Yes, I know about them too.”

“What? You want me to just have them do all the work? How do you know about them?”

“All of you live together, call yourselves by the same last name and refer to your group as the Knights of Ren. It’s a little strange. A little digging was enough to tell me that they’re most likely your accomplices.”

Kylo thought that they had been very careful about their activities so that no one would be able to find out it was them. But Rey knew. Hux found out. And now his mother was telling him that she knew as well. He couldn’t help but wonder who else might have figured out who the Knights were.

“I do wish you would stop,” she said. “I know you won’t, but please, be careful.”

Kylo hadn’t expected that. He thought she would insist that he stop, and threaten more drastic action if he didn’t.

“And Kylo. You might want to reconsider how much time you’re spending around law enforcement if you’re going to continue with the illegal activities. And you probably shouldn’t try to date any more cops.”

“I wasn’t dating him,” Kylo muttered.

“Anyway, I should get going. And Luke needs to talk to you as well.”

Kylo couldn’t help but groan. Having his mother show up was bad enough, but he didn’t want to talk to his uncle as well. He wasn’t surprised that they were both disappointed in him and talking to him about his activities, but he really didn’t want to put up with it.

Leia stood up and kissed him on the forehead before leaving. He was relieved she at least seemed to understand what he was doing. They hadn’t spoken for more than a few minutes at a time in years and Kylo was still expecting her to treat him like she did when he was a teenager. It almost made him wonder if he would be able to tolerate being around his family again.

Before he could think too much about family reunions, Luke walked in the room and he looked angrier than Kylo had ever seen him.

“I don’t even know where to begin with you,” Luke said. Unlike Leia, he did not sit down and instead started pacing back and forth. “You’ve been using your position at my Center to gain access to data which you use to commit crimes! It’s put a target on my life’s work because you can’t control yourself!”

“But -”

“I’m not done. Not only that, but you’ve recruited my interns and volunteers into helping you in this crusade! Do you realize what that would look like if the group of you were caught? We’d be shut down! I really shouldn’t be surprised at your behavior, but I’d hoped you’d learned to act like a normal human being!”

Kylo knew Luke was right. The risks were always in the back of his mind and he knew that if he were caught, Luke would likely suffer as well. It was one of the reasons he’d always been so careful. He didn’t want Luke - and especially not Rey - to deal with the consequences of his actions.

“I should fire you. I really should. But I spoke to Octa. Or Gavia, as I suppose I should call her now. At one point, she was one of the best rehabbers I’d ever known. And according to her, this was all her idea. I don’t know if I quite believe her, but I know she quit rehabbing soon after you arrived.”

“I’m not going to be fired?” Kylo asked, still not entirely sure if that’s what he meant.

“On that off chance that this wasn’t completely your idea, no. And I said Gavia was one of the best rehabbers I’d ever known. Do you know who the other one is?” Kylo shook his head and a slight smile crossed Luke’s face. “You. I absolutely do not want to lose you. But keep in mind I can’t tolerate this behavior. You can’t be using our records to find people to assault. And you can’t be stealing my people, either.”

“I didn’t steal them,” Kylo said. “They all wanted to join us.”

“I believe that with Kyp,” Luke said. “But why wouldn’t Tahiri have joined you? She seemed like the type. And Ganner? Really? You didn’t have to convince him?”

“I tried talking them all out of it.” Which was more or less true. Kylo certainly hadn’t tried to recruit any of them and had been very careful about who he had let into his group. Luke also had just let him in on an important fact - he didn’t know about all the Knights. Tahiri, now Crotalus, had joined them. She’d insisted on it. But since she didn’t live with him, maybe Luke hadn’t made the connection. He likely didn’t know about Zephius either, then.

“I doubt that. You’re lucky you managed to get out of trouble this time, but I wouldn’t count on the cops giving up. And I can’t imagine that trick will work again.”

“What trick?” Kylo still hadn’t figured out why he’d been released and only had Phasma’s hint to check the news. 

“You don’t know?” Luke took his phone out, tapped it a few times and then handed it to Kylo.

The video wasn’t long. It was on a street with plenty of people around but the important part was what looked like Kylo holding someone against a wall and then punching them before he then turned and ran off. It looked almost exactly like him, wearing the same helmet and costume he wore when out with the Knights. The sleeve was even torn open from being caught on barbed wire. But Kylo knew he hadn’t been out since then, nor had he attacked anyone in broad daylight in the middle of a crowded street.

“That happened when I was in custody?” Kylo guessed.

“Yes. I assume that’s Saba there. She’s about your size. Your other roommates are a bit too small to pull that off.”

“She goes by Gulo now,” Kylo said. “And I have no idea who that is in that video.” He didn’t think it was smart to admit to anything. Even if Luke already knew everything. 

“Of course you don’t. I think you should take the rest of the day off. Let your roommates know that this activity is going to cease.”

“Yeah,” Kylo agreed. He knew he was lucky that he wasn’t out of a job. “Can I ask you something?”

“You always can.”

“Haven’t you ever looked at the animals that come in and been able to figure out who did it and wanted to beat the shit out of them?”

“All the time,” Luke admitted with a small smile. “But that won’t help the animal any. I’d much rather put my energy into healing them and educating people so intentional injuries won’t happen as much. Maybe you should consider that as well.”

Kylo just nodded and then left. He knew he should have been in far more trouble. The worst that had happened was that Luke had yelled at him. And now that he knew his secret, he might be watched closely. But he still had his job, which surprised him.

Maybe working for family wasn’t so bad.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little more on the knights and some animal facts can be found [here.](https://coragyps.dreamwidth.org/6886.html)


	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a heads up - there is a dead baby animal in this chapter.

Hux had no idea if the rest of his coworkers knew about what had happened. Phasma, of course, knew. Hux had told her himself since she needed to know as his partner. Director Sloane wouldn’t have told anyone. But Snoke… Hux suspected that he would have told everyone. 

It was obvious that something was going on since Hux had been restricted to desk duty, but there were many possible reasons for that. But Hux suspected that everyone knew that he’d told a suspect that he was under surveillance. And if that were the case, that meant rumors about his sexuality might start to spread. Although he was fortunate to work in a very accepting workplace, he didn’t particularly want his coworkers knowing or even speculating about his sexuality as it was none of their business.

Hopefully, something would happen to get everyone’s mind off of why he’d been put on desk duty. And maybe Snoke really hadn’t told anyone. The man clearly had some kind of grand scheme and perhaps it was better for him if everyone didn’t know. 

The one thing being on desk duty allowed was that he had a little more free time to actually consider what Snoke was up to. The eagle case that had originally brought him out was long since wrapped up. Besides trying to catch Ren, the only other thing Hux thought he cared about was getting him to work for him. And from what he’d said in Sloane’s office, he’d very possibly manipulated a situation so he would have no choice.

Hux just wished he could figure out why Snoke seemed so fixated on recruiting him. And he wanted to know what he wanted with Ren, because it was more than just simply wanting to arrest a criminal. He hoped that Ren would be smart and keep his head down after his recent arrest, although he had his doubts that Ren was even capable of such a thing. But maybe, if he could behave himself even for a short while, Snoke would give up and leave.

He quickly decided that Ren might be able to go a few days without doing anything illegal, but he wouldn’t make it much longer than a week. And Snoke would surely be around longer than that. Unless the old man had a heart attack.

If he could get a message to Ren and tell him, and his accomplices, to lay low for a month or so, that might be long enough for Snoke to give up or at least be needed elsewhere. Surely, Fish and Wildlife wasn’t that interested in Ren that they would allow their people to stay as long as it took.

Once he’d finished all the paperwork for the day, he decided he’d go down to the basement to see if Mitaka needed any help. Given how busy Mitaka was, he almost always needed the help, and it gave Hux an excuse to be away from his desk. If he was in one place for any length of time, Snoke would start questioning him about Ren and the others.

When he got down there, he saw that Mitaka was indeed busy. Usually, it was smaller animals he was working on, usually not much larger than coyotes. But when he walked into his lab, Hux saw that he had an elk calf on his necropsy table. That was unusual.

“Oh, Hux, good,” Mitaka said, glancing up at him. “It’s you. This isn’t something I think most people want to see, but I don’t think you’ll be as bothered by it.”

“A dead calf?” Hux asked. It was certainly disturbing, but it wasn’t too out of the ordinary. Everyone who worked for the Wildlife Crime Division had to deal with dead baby animals at some point. And those that couldn’t handle it simply didn’t last long.

“This is worse,” he said. “I’ve only examined the outside, but it looks like this wasn’t an accident. Someone did this intentionally. And it doesn’t look like it was a quick death.”

“Who would do that?” Hux asked, although he knew that Mitaka wouldn’t have an answer. He only provided evidence - it was up to Hux and the other agents to connect the dots and figure out who. But Hux couldn’t even do that at the moment. Not until Sloane decided he’d been disciplined enough and he suspected that wouldn’t be until Snoke was gone.

“I can handle the necropsy on my own, but if you wouldn’t mind, do you think you could enter things into the computer and take pictures for me?”

“Sure,” he said. Even if he couldn’t go out in the field, he wanted to help figure out who was responsible for killing the calf. 

He looked at Mitaka’s computer and saw that the case file was already pulled up and he had it all prepared to enter his necropsy data. Hux couldn’t help but scroll to see the address of where the calf had been found at, and when Mitaka was busy, he scribbled it down on a piece of paper and put it in his pocket.

While Mitaka worked, Hux entered the data for him, which included detailed descriptions of rather brutal injuries. The only good thing that came out of the necropsy was that the worst of the injuries were all post-mortem. But someone had still killed a calf and then mutilated it. 

Even though he knew it was probably the worst idea he’d ever had with both him and Ren under suspicion, he couldn’t help himself. Something had to be done about the case. And he knew the worst they’d get on the person was poaching. Ren could do so much more.

Once he was off work, he headed down to the Skywalker Wildlife Center and was glad to see Ren’s car in the parking lot. He was there, but that didn’t mean that he would listen to him. But maybe he’d at least take the address from him.

Ren was in the medical room with his back to the door. Hux couldn’t see what he was doing, but he could see large wings flapping. When Ren turned towards the large kennel on the exam table, Hux could see that he had a raven. Once the bird was secure in the kennel, Ren turned to him.

“What the fuck -”

Hux put a finger to his lips and then pointed to his ear. Ren immediately fell silent. Hux hoped that he hadn’t already forgotten about the bugs, but it was not the time to ask about that. Or the place. Hux motioned for him to follow him and he did so. They went outside to where Hux knew their conversation wouldn’t be picked up, no matter how loud Ren yelled.

“It’s safe here,” he said.

“Fuck you, Hux!” Ren shouted. “You can’t just show up here like this!”

“I had nothing to do with your arrest! I don’t know how many times I need to tell you that I’m not working for Snoke!”

“I almost lost my job because of you!”

“Don’t act like you’re innocent in all this! You’re the one running around in a helmet and punching people!”

“You’re such a fucking asshole! You made me think you liked me! That’s really fucked up!”

“I do like you!” Hux shouted. Finally, Ren seemed to listen to him, or at the very least, he was shocked into silence. He took a deep breath before continuing. “I like you, Ren. For a very long time. I wanted to kiss you that day when you were at my place and ask you out on a date and everything.”

“You’re… you’re not just saying that?” Ren asked. “Why didn’t you tell me before?”

“I never had the chance. I was so busy working the eagle case that I just didn’t have time to see you and then the feds started looking into you and Snoke made you believe I was working against you. And then when I tried warning you about the bugs, it turned out they’d already bugged your house, so now I’m in trouble too.”

“You didn’t get fired, did you?”

“No,” he said. “But I’m on desk duty for the moment. My boss won’t fire me but she has to do something while the feds are watching.”

Ren fell silent and for a moment, they just looked at each other. It was the first time in a while that Ren hadn't looked like he wanted to murder him and Hux wanted to pull him into his arms and kiss him, but that wasn't why he was there.

“I have some information. For your accomplices.”

“My what?”

“I know you're not working alone. And I don't want to know who they are so please don't tell me. But I have an address for you.”

“What happened?”

Hux explained quickly about the elk calf and what had happened to it and he saw the expression on Ren's face go from shock to anger very quickly.

“Give me the address,” he said.

“You're not planning on going yourself, are you?” Hux already knew the answer to that, even before he asked. “You can't go. You're under investigation!”

“I don't care! I'm not letting this person get away with this! And you're not going to stop me.”

“You're right,” Hux agreed, coming to a decision. “I'm going with you.”

“You can't!”

“Neither can you, but you're not letting that stop you. And if you're going, so am I.”

Ren didn't answer and instead walked past him. Hux followed him to his car and got in the passenger seat. Maybe Ren didn't want him to go, but he at least realized he couldn't stop him.

Giving Ren the information was a bad enough idea, but going out with him was even worse. If he got caught, not even Sloane could save his job. But he wasn't about to let Ren head off alone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For some animal facts, check out my [dreamwidth.](https://coragyps.dreamwidth.org/7077.html)


	19. Chapter 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's a character death in this chapter and they die in a fairly brutal way. Please see the end notes for more details.

Kylo should have put his foot down and told Hux no. Although he couldn't stop him from following, he didn't have to make it so easy for him. But he also wanted to be with him, so he let Hux get in his car and then drove him to Zephius's place so he could get his gear.

He briefly considered doing exactly what Hux wanted and give the information to his Knights, but he'd already made up his mind and he wasn't going to change it so easily. And he wanted to beat the shit out of whatever person killed the calf. It wasn't something he would be happy to hand to someone else.

He didn't like the idea of Hux knowing where Zephius lived, but if Hux was really on his side, then it wouldn't matter. And Zephius wasn't home anyway, so Hux wouldn't know what he looked like. As he dressed himself, he found some extra costume parts and handed them to Hux.

“I'm not wearing these ridiculous clothes,” Hux said. He looked them over very quickly and then handed them back.

“You're not going out dressed in your uniform,” Kylo replied, looking at his tan uniform. It was far too obvious and it had his name on the front. It would be dark by the time they got there, so it wasn’t likely anyone would be able to read it, but Kylo didn’t want to take any chances. “Unless you have something else in mind, you'd better put those on.”

“I do have a better idea, actually,” Hux said. “We can stop by my apartment on our way. I have something there I can wear. And you can see Millie.”

“Bribing me with cats?”

“I need to get you inside so you won't drive off,” he said. “It was either seeing a cat or offering to make out with you and I wasn't sure you'd go for that.”

Kylo felt himself blushing and he quickly turned his back to Hux and grabbed his helmet. Only once it was on did he return his attention to Hux. He might have his own clothes, but Kylo guessed he didn't have anything to hide his face. And his hair. At least the Knights had some extra equipment.

He picked up an older helmet that no one had used in some time. The last one to use it was Crotalus when she had first joined them and had yet to design her own helmet. It looked like a fairly standard motorcycle helmet, so there was little room for objection.

“You'll at least need this,” he said holding the helmet out to him. Hux sneered at it and Kylo thought he might refuse. “You really don't want your face visible. And we'll be on a motorcycle. It also has night vision, so you’ll be able to see.”

“I suppose you're right,” Hux muttered as he took the helmet. “At least it's not as hideous as yours.”

Kylo couldn't help but laugh at that. He'd spent quite a bit of time designing his helmet and had any one else called it ugly, Kylo would have been mad. But he liked it when Hux tried to insult him. It was almost cute.

“Let's go,” Kylo said once he was ready. Hux followed him to the shed to the side of Zephius's place. He unlocked it and took out one of the bikes. They all shared them, so it wasn't as if one really belonged to Kylo.

He got on and looked at Hux, who seemed hesitant to join him, but he eventually put on the helmet and got on behind him. Kylo smiled when he felt Hux’s hands on his waist and then took off, going a bit slower than usual since Hux was with him. He didn’t know if he’d ever been on a motorcycle before, and he didn’t want to scare him with his normal style of riding. Although if they had to make a quick getaway, he might not have a choice.

Kylo drove to Hux’s place and followed him inside. He lifted his hands to remove his helmet but he remembered what Hux said about making out and he decided to leave it on. Hux fed his cat and gave her fresh water before going into what Kylo assumed was his bedroom. He waited, and soon, Hux stepped out. He was wearing all black clothing, topped with a heavy coat that went past his knees.

“Will this do?” he asked.

“Yeah,” Kylo said, unable to keep himself from staring. He’d almost never seen him out of his uniform. He thought he looked good then, but he looked so much better in black. At least he had the helmet on so Hux couldn’t see him staring. “That’ll be fine.”

They headed back out to the bike and took off. It took nearly an hour before they got close to where they were going. The address was for a small house set away from the road and surrounded by trees, the ideal location for what Ren had planned. Once he turned the bike off, he could hear an elk bugling somewhere nearby. Although he’d known there were elk in the area, it was a bit early for the rut. Hopefully the male wouldn’t already be aggressive, but Kylo hoped they simply managed to avoid him. 

“Don’t do anything stupid,” Kylo told Hux as he parked. He realized it wasn't the best idea to have Hux out there with him. As far as Kylo knew, he’d never done such a thing before, although at least being a cop gave him some experience. He just hoped it wouldn’t end up being a mistake.

“I won’t do anything you wouldn’t,” Hux answered.

They walked around the property for a short while and Kylo saw that there was a truck parked outside and there was a light on inside. When he walked up closer to the house, he saw blood on the ground. He was rather certain it was from the calf.

Not wanting to spend too much time since they still had a long ride back home, Kylo looked for an appropriately sized rock. He’d just found one when Hux put a hand on his shoulder. Kylo had been ready to throw the rock through the window, but he stopped.

“What?” he asked quietly.

“Don’t you think we should look around first?”

“Why?”

“To make sure this is legit,” Hux said as he removed his helmet. “The entire place only looks like it’s recently been inhabited. There’s only a few sets of fresh tire tracks. Other than that, this place hasn’t been used in some time.”

“You should put your helmet back on,” Kylo said. “It’s clearly the right address.” Not wanting to listen any longer, he threw the rock into the nearest window. 

“Damn it, Ren!” Hux hissed. “I know it’s the right address but it could be a -” Hux never had a chance to finish that sentence.

“Put your hands up!”

The whole situation seemed terribly familiar and Kylo couldn’t believe he’d fallen for it again. He looked over at Hux, wondering if he’d actually betrayed him. But he didn’t have time to say anything. Hux had his hands on him and was pushing him away.

“Run!” 

Kylo took off running and he could hear that Hux was right behind him. He planned on heading back to his motorcycle but as a large shape moved in front of him, he suddenly came to a halt, putting an arm out to stop Hux as well.

“What - oh.”

Neither of them moved as the bull elk slowly moved across their path, knowing that he was far more dangerous than the cops behind them. The cops at least wanted to take them alive, but if they caught the elk’s eye, he might very well kill them.

“Move very slowly,” Kylo whispered, backing away from the elk.

“I know how to deal with elk,” Hux whispered back.

Kylo realized that after he’d said it. He was used to people not knowing what to do when faced with wildlife, but of course Hux knew. The elk had seen them but didn’t seem too interested in them yet and Kylo hoped it would stay that way.

They’d backed away and had just started moving around the large deer when they saw three others running towards them. Snoke and the other feds were right there and hadn’t seemed to notice the elk. They were still too close to start running so Kylo just put his hands up and Hux did the same as Snoke moved to stand in front of them, which put his back to the elk.

“Solo,” Snoke said, pointing his gun at him. “And Hux. I must say, I’m surprised to see you here, although perhaps I shouldn’t be. You were obviously very attached to Solo. I should have expected you were his accomplice. Although there must be more of you.”

“Can we do this somewhere else?” Hux asked. “In case you haven’t noticed, there’s an elk right behind you.”

“As if I’m going to let you two risk getting away because of that,” Snoke said.

“You should listen to him,” Kylo said. With his helmet on, he could clearly see the elk and because he was watching him carefully, he could see that he had his ears back and head raised high. Kylo couldn’t help but flinch when he stomped the ground with a hoof. Clearly, he was unhappy about the intruders in his territory.

“He’s getting agitated,” Hux warned Snoke.

“I don’t care about some stupid deer! Now the two of you are coming with me and if you don’t want your lives ruined, I think you’ll find working for me your only option.”

“If we live that long,” Kylo muttered, still not taking his eyes off the elk. He was continuing to stomp on the ground and then Kylo saw the elk lower his head.

“Look out!” Hux shouted.

Snoke finally turned around and faced the elk, but it was too late. With his head lowered, the elk charged. Kylo heard the sound of flesh being penetrated and saw the antler coming out of Snoke’s back. Had being gored been the only concern - and had anyone been properly motivated - Snoke might have been able to survive. It wasn’t likely given their remote location, but his chances were reduced to zero when the elk knocked him to the ground and began stomping on him. 

Kylo could hear the sounds of bones cracking under the hooves, but he didn’t need to stick around to watch. He knew there was no way Snoke could possibly be alive, and it wasn’t as if he wanted to help him anyway. With the elk distracted, it gave Kylo and Hux a chance to get back to the motorcycle.

“I need you to take me back towards the house,” Hux said once he climbed on the back.

“What? Why?”

“Peavey and Cannady saw me. They know I was here, so I’m fucked no matter what, but I’ll be more fucked if I take off. And who knows. Maybe they’ll end up getting gored by an elk too.”

“No, Hux. Just go with me. Who would believe them anyway?”

“I have to stay, Ren.”

Kylo wanted to argue with him and since he was the one driving, he briefly considered just driving off with Hux. As long as he was going fast enough, it wasn’t as if Hux would jump off. But if Hux really wanted to stay behind, then Kylo knew he couldn’t stop him.

He drove up towards the driveway and let him off, expecting him to just walk away, but instead, he looked down at him and then reached out and took his helmet off. Before Kylo could ask what he was doing, Hux leaned down and kissed him. He then put his helmet back on and strode towards the house, looking rather confident for a man who was probably about to lose his job.

Kylo didn’t want to leave him, but there was nothing he could do. He’d only get himself in trouble if he stayed. Instead, he just waited until Hux was out of sight and then took off. Hopefully it wouldn’t be the last time he would see him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Snoke is gored and trampled by an elk. It's about two paragraphs long so there's not tons of detail, but there is definitely some.
> 
> More on attack elks can be found [here.](https://coragyps.dreamwidth.org/7199.html)


	20. Chapter 20

Hux still couldn’t believe he hadn’t been arrested. Peavey and Cannady had certainly seen him out there with Ren and there was absolutely no reason for them not to say so. Not unless they were also trying to force him to work for Fish and Wildlife, but in the hour that Hux had been waiting in Director Sloane’s office, he’d already decided he wouldn’t work for them. He had no idea what he was going to do because surely he was at least going to be fired, but he’d figure that out eventually. 

Maybe Ren would let him join his group, although he wasn’t sure how well being a vigilante paid. He’d probably lose his apartment, but maybe Ren would let him move in too.

Finally, Director Sloane walked through the door and Hux watched her as she walked to her desk and sat down. She didn’t speak to him or even look at him and if Hux didn’t know any better, he might have thought that she forgot he was there. She looked at her computer screen for several minutes before she finally looked at him.

“Tell me exactly what happened last night.”

Hux immediately launched into his explanation, starting with seeing the elk calf and how he wrote down the address. He was hesitant to mention Ren by name, but there was no way around it. So he told Sloane about taking the information to him and how he’d insisted on going with him. And then he got to the part where they’d run from Snoke and the others and came across the bull elk and Snoke hadn’t paid any attention to him and he had eventually become agitated enough to charge.

Sloane listened the entire time he spoke and didn’t interrupt. Hux made sure his explanations were thorough enough that she wouldn’t need to ask too many questions. The only thing he left out was that he had kissed Ren. That was a detail she didn’t need to know.

“At least your story matches up with the others,” Sloane said once he had finished. “I also read your police report from last night, and I’m glad you didn’t give them as much detail as you gave me, because we’ll need to change a few things.”

“What do you mean?” 

“Obviously, we can’t let anyone else know that you went along with a criminal in order to help him commit a crime,” Sloane said. She leaned back in her chair and tapped a pen on the desk. “No, I think we’ll say that you were trying to find out more about this group running around and assaulting people. It was not official and done on your own time, but we’ll say I was aware of what you were doing.”

“You want to lie about what happened? Why?”

“Because if anyone finds out the whole truth, I’ll have no choice but to fire you, and even though what you did was incredibly stupid, I’d rather not lose you over this. Although I suppose I should ask. Do you know anything about the others?”

“No,” Hux said, glad he could be honest about it. “I suspect it’s his roommates, and maybe some of them are involved, but it’s just a hunch.”

“I’ll let you know if there’s anything else we need to keep straight, but I suspect no one’s really going to care too much about what you were doing out there. You can go back to work. Full duty.”

“What?” He thought he’d at least be suspended. Sloane knew everything and he couldn’t believe she was just going to overlok what he did. He wasn’t sure how she could. “Why aren’t I in trouble? The feds -”

“They have bigger things to worry about. Snoke’s death, of course. But mostly, it’s that he was a bit shady. Lots of things are coming to light now that he’s dead, so the feds are far more interested in that than you. And since Snoke never made any official record of his suspicions about you, that means you’re off the hook.”

Hux couldn’t believe he was that lucky. He didn’t think that Sloane would have been able to save him, and he really didn’t expect her too. Not after he’d done something so stupid and impulsive. Surely there had to be something he was missing. Something that would come back to bite him in the ass.

“But just between us,” Sloane said, “you might want to be careful associating with criminals in the future. Solo may just be a blip on the radar, but if someone does decide to seriously look into him, you can’t be caught like this.”

“I have no intention of spending anymore time with him,” Hux said.

“Armitage.” From her use of his first name, he knew he’d been caught in a lie. “I know you’ve got a thing for Solo. I know you know it’s a bad idea, so there’s nothing I can say that will convince you to stop seeing him. So just be very careful how you proceed.”

“I will.”

“And on another, personal note,” she said with a slight smile. “When are you going to bring him by so I can meet him?”

Hux muttered something about getting back to work and quickly left. He didn’t even want to think about bringing Ren around to meet Sloane. He didn’t even want to think about being in a serious enough relationship that he’d have to introduce a boyfriend to the closest thing he had to family. And then there was the thought that he’d have to meet Ren’s family as well. Or at least the rest of them.

He returned to his desk, glad to be back to work. As much as he liked paperwork, he’d been itching to get back in the field. Not that he could do that right away. First, he’d have to pick out a case that looked promising.

“So,” Phasma said, rolling her chair over to his desk. “I hear you’re back. What the hell did you do?”

“I didn’t do anything,” Hux said as he started to go through files. 

“Come on, Hux. I know something happened. All anyone around here knows is that Snoke’s dead and that you know something about it. So tell me.”

“It’s a long story and I don’t have time for that. We need a new case to work on.”

“There’s a rumor going around that one of his men killed him. Is that true?”

Hux looked up from the files. He didn’t really want to talk about Snoke, but he had the feeling Phasma wouldn’t stop until he gave her something. “No,” he said. “It’s not really something I’m supposed to talk about. After the investigation concludes, I’m sure you’ll learn everything.”

“Can you at least give me a clue?”

“No.”

Phasma fell silent at that, giving Hux time to go through several case files. But he could feel her watching him and he finally looked up from his desk, waiting for her to ask again.

“How’s your boyfriend?”

“I don’t have a boyfriend,” he muttered, looking back down at his files. He didn’t know if that was true any longer or not. He hadn’t even gone on a date with Ren - and falling into a trap together certainly didn’t count - but Hux was positive that Ren liked him and would go out with him if he actually asked. 

“Sure you don’t,” Phasma said smugly. “That totally explains why you’ve been writing “Armitage Ren” on a piece of paper with hearts all over it.”

“I most certainly haven’t.” He did his best to ignore her as she came around to his side of the desk. She opened up a drawer and pulled something out, but Hux wasn’t paying attention to her. It wasn’t until she dropped an open notebook in front of him that he looked at her.

“What is this?” he asked, picking up the notebook. All over the page were hearts with “Armitage + Kylo” and “Armitage Ren” written all over it. At first glance, it even looked like it was in his handwriting, but he knew he would never write such ridiculous things, even if he were drunk.

“It’s your notebook,” she said.

“I know I didn’t write this, Phasma. And you’re the only one here who knows my handwriting well enough to do this. And you’re the only one who would.”

“Let’s call it an artist’s rendition of your brain.”

“I may like the guy, but I’m not so obsessed with him that I can’t think of anything else. And I certainly don’t think about things like this.” He picked up the notebook and put it back away inside his desk. He’d tear that page out later when he had time. But first, he needed to find a case to work on.

“I see you haven’t found a case you like yet,” she said. Hux looked up, suspicious at her sudden change of topic. “Any reason for that?”

“Just looking for one that has something to go on,” he said. 

“Or maybe you’re looking for something else,” she said as she started to walk back to her desk. She picked up a file and then dropped it in front of him.

“You already had one picked out?” he asked. He opened the file and saw that it was something that would actually be worth pursuing. Maybe it wouldn’t lead to an arrest, but there was evidence about who had caused the raccoon’s injuries. 

“I thought you’d like that one,” she said.

“Obviously. There’s actually something to go on here.”

“Yeah, that’s not the only reason you like it.” She pointed on the file to the information about where the raccoon had been taken. Skywalker Wildlife Center. 

“I wasn’t even looking at that,” he said. As he spoke, he realized that he had been glancing at that section on all the other files he had looked through. Although they were not cases he would have taken anyway, he might have taken them if they would have had him ending up over at Skywalker’s. 

“Sure you weren’t. And let me guess. You think we need to head out to the rehab center to interview them, right?”

“I always talk to the rehab centers for any case.” Which was true, but usually, he handled it with a phone call. Even if they were within close driving distance like Skywalker’s. He couldn’t deny that the only reason he was going in person was to talk to Ren.

Not that it mattered. Phasma and Sloane both knew the truth about him and Ren, and as much as they might bother him about it, they weren’t the gossiping types. His secret was safe with them.

“Let’s go.”

***

Kylo always hated sitting in Luke’s office. It wasn’t very large and it made him feel like he was too large to even be in the room. Usually, Luke would talk to him while he worked, but he’d called him into his office after he’d finished his morning rounds. It was never a good sign when Luke wanted him in his office.

“I know you went out again,” Luke said. “Right after we’d talked about it. If the cops show up -”

“They won’t,” Kylo said. “You told me not to use information from here. So I didn’t. I had another source. Nothing I did last night will lead back to here.”

“When we had that conversation, that wasn’t what I meant,” Luke said. “I wanted you to stop these activities.”

“Yeah, well you said you didn’t want me bringing the attention of the cops here. So I didn’t. The Center’s fine. And the cops won’t come here.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“Because…” Kylo didn’t know what to tell him. He didn’t want to mention that Hux had gone with him last night. He had no idea if Hux was already in too much trouble for it to matter if anyone else knew, but Kylo didn’t want to make things any worse for him. “I’m just pretty sure they won’t.”

“They’d better not.” He sighed and shook his head. “I didn’t intend for you to just find another source of information, but I obviously should have been more clear. So you know what? Fine. If you have to go around and beat people up, do it. But I don’t want to see the cops around here again because of you, got it?”

“You won’t,” Kylo promised him. Right as he said that, there was a knock on the partially closed door, which was enough to push it open. Kylo turned and saw Phasma and Hux standing there. He turned his attention back to Luke, who suddenly looked very tired.

“You were saying?” Luke asked.

“Dr. Skywalker,” Phasma said. “There was a recent case involving a raccoon that I’d like to talk to you about if you have some time.”

“Sure,” Luke said. “I was just finishing up here, so come on in and have a seat. You can go, Kylo, but watch yourself.”

“Hux, you might as well go talk to Ren about the case too,” Phasma said. “Just in case he remembers something else that might help us.”

“Yes,” Hux agreed. “I think that’s a great idea Phasma.”

Kylo saw a quick grin appear on Phasma’s face, but it vanished just as quickly as it appeared and Kylo wasn’t sure if he actually saw it or if maybe he was just tired and starting to imagine things. He left Luke’s office and walked with Hux into the medical room and turned on the laptop.

“Do you happen to have the raccoon’s patient number?” Kylo asked. “Or if not, I can look it up with dates or whatever details you happen to have. Let’s see… Procyon lotor…” He was just started to narrow down his patient list so he could quickly find Hux’s raccoon. 

“Ren,” he said. 

“Yeah?” Kylo glanced at him but turned his attention back to the screen.

“Phasma didn’t really want me to talk to you,” he said. “At least not about the case.”

“Then what do you want to - oh.” Kylo should have realized that Hux would want to talk about the previous night. Kylo had wanted to act like it had never happened since Hux was the only one who knew it was him out there. No one else had seen his face. “I guess you didn’t get in that much trouble then?”

“None at all, actually,” Hux said. “Although I did tell my boss everything about what had happened. Which does include your identity, but I trust her. She has no intention of turning you in. And she knows about us.”

“So the whole thing with Snoke? It’s over? They’re not going to send anyone else to investigate?”

“No,” Hux said. “Apparently, Snoke never made any official reports involving either of us, so as far as everyone is concerned, you were just a suspect. And the feds are far more concerned about Snoke himself. He was doing some very illegal stuff, so my guess is that they’re going to try to bury everything he ever worked on. Which includes you. But I didn’t really want to talk about Snoke either.”

“Oh, sorry.” He wasn’t sure what else Hux would want to talk to him about. “So I don’t need to lie to anyone to protect you?”

“No, but thanks for the offer.” Hux took a step towards him. “What I really wanted to talk about was something a little more exciting. In fact, we don’t even have to talk all that much.”

“Um, okay?” Kylo thought he knew what he was getting at, but he wasn’t quite sure. Or he wasn’t until Hux took another step closer and was close enough that Kylo could easily reach out and touch him.

“Good,” Hux said, taking one final step so he was nearly right up against him. “Just let me know if anything I do makes you uncomfortable and I’ll stop, okay?”

Before Kylo could ask him what he meant, Hux had his arms around his neck and pressed his lips to his. He didn’t move at first, surprised at the action. It wasn’t the first time Hux had kissed him, but it was the first time he didn’t pull away almost immediately. This time, Hux continued to kiss him and Kylo finally remembered that he needed to do something besides stand there.

He put his arms around Hux and held him against him. When he felt Hux’s tongue on his lip, he opened his mouth for him. He hadn’t realized how much he’d wanted that exact thing and he lifted Hux up and put him on the counter. Hux wrapped his legs around him, locking him in place.

Eventually, Hux turned his head down and away from Kylo, but Kylo needed more and he kissed the side of his face and trailed his way down to his neck. Hux kept his arms and legs wrapped around him while Kylo kissed and licked his neck until he finally moved a hand so he could lift his head back up.

Kylo worried he’d gone too far or done something Hux didn’t like but it didn’t take long for Hux to start kissing him again. This time, Hux let his hands wander on his body. One hand found its way into his hair while the other went under his shirt. He very lightly brushed across his stomach and then brought his hand higher up until it was resting on his chest. Kylo couldn’t help but moan into Hux’s mouth as his thumb brushed across his nipple and he squeezed the muscle.

He was trying to push his chest further into Hux’s hand when the door suddenly flung open. Kylo let go of Hux and tried to back away from him, but Hux still had his legs wrapped around him. Fortunately for Kylo, it was Phasma who walked in and not one of his family members or coworkers. He felt bad for Hux, but apparently, he didn’t care, because he still had a hand up his shirt.

“I made the interview last as long as I could,” she said. “But it’s going to be a bit suspicious if I drag this out any longer. Better get back to work.”

“I’ll be right there,” Hux said as he pulled his hand out from under Kylo’s shirt. Phasma left and Hux finally unwrapped his legs from Kylo and he stepped back so he could get off the counter.

“So I guess I’ll see you around?” Kylo asked, feeling stupid as soon as he said that. He should have thought of something better to say.

“Yes, speaking of that,” Hux said, pulling out his phone. “I still don’t have your number. Put it in and I’ll call you when I’m off work. And then we can go out. On a date. If you’re interested that is.”

“Of course I’m interested,” Kylo said, taking Hux’s phone from him and typing his number in. “But we’ve already been on a date, haven’t we?”

“I think I’d remember that.”

“Running off to the woods to beat someone up doesn’t count as a date?”

“Well, that is a lovely idea, Ren, but I don’t think last night counts since it was a set up. And I was thinking something a little more tame for our first date.”

“Yeah,” Kylo agreed. “We’ve already rescued wildlife and nearly got arrested together. Probably about time for a movie or coffee or something.”

“Yes, I think something a bit more normal would be wonderful. But I’ll call you and we can talk about it. I’d better go before Phasma drags me out of here.”

“Don’t think I won’t!” Phasma called from just outside the door. “Now hurry it up! You can hump your boyfriend later!”

Hux rolled his eyes at that, but gave Kylo a quick kiss before leaving. Kylo really didn’t want him to go, but he remembered that he was at work and had things to do besides making out with Hux. He couldn’t help but smile when he thought about Hux calling him later that day. He was still smiling when Rey walked into the room.

“So you two are actually dating now?” she asked.

“Shut up, Rey,” he grumbled, trying to be angry that she was bothering him but he also couldn’t help but keep smiling. Because he and Hux were actually dating.

“Oh my god, you really are!” She had her phone in her hand almost instantly. Kylo hadn’t even seen where she was keeping it. “Finn and Poe aren’t going to believe this!”

“Do you have to tell your boyfriends everything?”

“Yep,” she said with a smirk. “Poe said that Hux was going to arrest you and Finn said he was going to shoot you. I said you guys were going to hook up. So I win!”

“What the fuck?” he asked, not even sure where to begin with that. Not only were they talking about him, but they had been taking bets? Finn thought Hux would shoot him?

“I did think Poe might be right for a while. I mean, you’re a criminal and he’s a cop. But I really hoped it would end up like this. It’s kinda cute.”

“Cute?” Kylo didn’t think he liked being associated with anything that could be considered cute. 

“I can’t wait until Aunt Leia finds out about this! She’s gonna flip!”

“Don’t tell her!”

“Too late!” Rey put her phone back in her pocket and ran out of the room. 

Before Kylo could chase after her and ask if she really told his mother about his boyfriend, his phone buzzed. He looked at it and saw he had a text from Leia. He didn’t really want to read it, but he’d have to deal with it eventually. But first, he’d have to get revenge on Rey.

He poked his head out the door and shouted after her. “Guess I’m telling Luke about the fact you have two boyfriends!”

“Fuck you!” Rey shouted back.

He looked at his phone, already thinking of how he was going to defend his choice in a boyfriend to his mother, but instead, she only asked when she would get to meet him. Once again, he couldn’t help but smile. Because Hux was his boyfriend and that thought would always make him smile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Have some fun [animal facts!](https://coragyps.dreamwidth.org/7591.html)


	21. Chapter 21

After spending so long trying to avoid being around his family, Kylo still found himself dreading any encounters with them. Especially when everyone was together. He couldn’t even remember the last time he’d been together with the entire family - likely sometime before he had left home. And he couldn’t ever remember a family gathering ending well.

That’s how he found himself sitting in his bathroom in hopes that he might suddenly get sick. If it were up to him, he’d simply text Rey and tell her he was throwing up and couldn’t make it, but Hux would never let him get away with that.

It was all Hux’s fault in the first place and he was determined to go. Kylo had tried talking him out of it, but once he had made the plans with Rey, his mind was set. And now, they were going to have to sit around with the entire family and hope some disaster didn’t occur.

“Kylo?” Hux called from the other side of the door. He almost sounded concerned. Maybe he could fake being sick after all. “We’re going to be late if you don’t hurry up.”

“We can just not go,” Kylo suggested.

“We’re going. Even if I have to break down this door and drag you into the car.”

Kylo didn’t doubt that he would. They’d known each other for about a year and if Kylo had learned anything about Hux, it was that he would always get what he wanted. That was why Kylo had moved out of the house he shared with the Knights and into a new place with Hux. Not wanting to replace the bathroom door later, Kylo finally got up and walked back into their bedroom.

“Come on,” Hux said. “You’d better get dressed.” 

Kylo would have worn his work clothes - shorts and a t-shirt. It wasn’t as if they were having a fancy dinner - just a barbeque in his parents' backyard. To Kylo, that meant there was no need to wear anything special. But Hux had already picked out his clothes and had other ideas about appropriate attire.

Hux at least knew him well enough to know that he did not want to wear pants or long sleeves, but he did pick out a button down shirt and a nicer pair of shorts for him. Hux wore a similar shirt, but he was wearing pants. Kylo had never seen him wear shorts before, no matter how hot it got. It was strange to Kylo, who rarely wore pants even in winter, but at least it meant there was more of Hux that was for him only.

As soon as he had his clothes on, Hux rewarded him with a kiss on the cheek and Kylo took the opportunity to grab him and held him close. He had one last chance to get out of going to dinner at his parents’.

He started kissing Hux and for a moment, Kylo thought he’d found a solution to the problem as Hux was very enthusiastic about kissing him back. But just as Kylo started to undo the front of Hux’s pants, he pushed him away.

“You know we don’t have time for that. And you’re not going to convince me to not go, no matter what you planned on doing.”

“It’d be a lot more fun,” Kylo promised.

“I’m sure it would be, but I did promise Rey I’d make you show up, so we do have to go. It can’t possibly be that bad, Kylo. You see most everyone who will be there everyday.”

“Yeah, but my parents will be there,” Kylo said. “They’re gonna make things awkward.”

“Well, it can’t be any worse than when you met Rae.”

That particular meeting hadn’t been a disaster, exactly, but it was an experience Kylo had no desire to repeat. Hux’s boss had grilled him and Kylo felt like he was being interrogated again. It didn’t help that he knew that she already knew all about him. He hadn’t wanted to admit to anything out loud, but he also knew that he couldn’t lie to her. Overall, the entire experience had been awkward, but he survived.

He wasn’t sure if he could survive his own family.

“You’ll see,” Kylo said with a sigh. There was no point asking again if they could just not show up because Kylo knew the answer. Hux was determined to go.

“Look,” Hux said, “I said we’d go, but I never said for how long. If it’s truly terrible, we can leave early.” He gave him a quick kiss before taking his hand and walking out of their bedroom. Hux held his hand until they made it to the car.

They didn’t talk much on the way over - Kylo was too nervous and Hux liked to focus on the road. The closer they got to his parents’ house, the more nervous Kylo became and he couldn’t stop fidgeting. It wasn’t that he was worried about them yelling at him or an argument breaking out - he was worried that they wouldn’t like Hux.

He could handle his family not liking him or not liking some of his friends, but he didn’t know what he would do if they hated Hux. His boyfriend was far too important to him and he couldn’t stand the idea that his family might be hoping for them to break up. 

And he worried what Hux would think of his family. What if Hux hated them as well and decided he wasn’t worth the trouble? What if Hux broke up with him when he saw just what his family was like? For Hux’s sake, he could manage to not talk to his parents but he worked with his uncle and cousin. He couldn’t leave his job.

“Kylo.”

Hux’s voice pulled him from his thoughts. The car was parked and they were already in front of Han and Leia’s house. He glanced at the house and then back at Hux, ready to insist that he couldn’t go and that he couldn’t make him, but Hux took his hand, silencing him before he even spoke.

“It’s going to be okay,” Hux assured him.

"What if it's not? What if -"

"Kylo. Nothing terrible is going to happen. Remember, we can leave if things are looking bad. There's nothing to worry about."

"Sorry." Kylo knew his fears were irrational, but he'd never been comfortable at family gatherings. "It's been ten years since I've seen everyone together. And now I'm bringing my boyfriend to meet them. What if they hate you?"

"Fortunately for you, the only opinion I care about is yours. And at least we know Rey doesn't hate me."

"Yeah." The only new people Hux would be meeting were his parents and Uncle Lando. He already knew Luke and Rey and her boyfriends and he got along with them. Kylo wasn't sure how Luke felt about Hux, but he was always nice to him when he was at the Center. There really wasn’t anything to worry about.

“We should go,” Hux said.

“I don’t wanna,” he muttered, but even as he did, he opened the door and got out of the car. He joined Hux on the sidewalk and immediately grabbed his hand. As nervous as he was, having Hux at his side made things better. They’d been through so much together - surely facing his family wasn’t any worse than coming across an enraged bull elk.

No matter how much he tried to tell himself it wouldn’t be that bad, he still felt like he might throw up when Hux rang the doorbell and they stood outside, waiting. What if Han was the one who answered? He was not ready to see his father as soon as the door opened.

When he heard the door starting to open, he squeezed Hux’s hand, fearing he might run back to the car without him. As soon as he saw it was only Rey, he relaxed his grip on Hux’s hand but didn’t let go. He didn’t think he’d be able to let go of Hux’s hand the entire time. They probably should have brought Hux’s handcuffs to make sure they didn’t get separated. 

“I can’t believe you managed to get him here!” Rey said excitedly. She grabbed Kylo’s free arm and pulled him inside the house. Because he refused to let go of Hux, he was dragged along with him.

Rey pulled them into the kitchen where Poe was standing over the counter. It looked like he was making some kind of dessert but Kylo really didn’t have time to look. They hardly had a chance to say hi to each other before Rey had them out the back door where she finally let go of his arm.

Suddenly, Kylo was standing in the backyard with the rest of his family. Now that he was there with Hux at his side, he realized that he really didn’t have anything to worry about. His parents and uncles weren’t sitting around the table with frowns on their faces, ready to talk to him about how disappointed they were in him, and how they knew he could be better. He wasn’t a teenager anymore.

Instead, Leia approached them with a smile and gave Kylo a hug. She then held her hand out to Hux and introduced herself. The entire time, Kylo kept a hold of Hux’s hand. He was feeling less nervous, but he really just liked holding his hand.

Eventually, they did have to let go, but by that point, Kylo was nearly at ease. Hux had been introduced to the few family members he didn’t know and everything seemed completely normal. There were no arguments or fights, no screaming, nothing being thrown. It was rather nice, Kylo thought.

As nice as it was, Kylo was still more than prepared to leave shortly after dinner. He took Hux’s hand as they left, not feeling the need to hold it nearly as tightly as he had on the way in. Before he left, he even promised that they’d come by again and he even meant it.

“You don’t have to say it,” Kylo said once they were back in the safety of the car. Although everything had gone well, Kylo couldn’t help but feel a sense of relief that it was over. 

“Say what?” Hux asked.

“That it really wasn’t that bad.”

“I wasn’t going to say anything. But you’re right. It wasn’t that bad.”

“Yeah. But thanks. For staying with me. I couldn’t have done it without you.”

“You wouldn’t have even made it to the front door without me.” He reached over and took his hand again. “But you know I wouldn’t leave you.”

Kylo smiled. Even after a year together, he couldn’t believe he had the luck to end up with Hux as his boyfriend. Or the fact that he had a boyfriend at all. Dating had never been a priority for him, but now, he couldn’t imagine his life without Hux.

“You know,” Hux said as they arrived back home, “I was thinking that you deserve a reward since you survived a trip to your parents’ house.”

“Yeah?”

“Anything you want,” Hux said. “But we should probably get inside first.”

Kylo grinned and followed Hux in. There were countless things he could think of to ask for as his reward but once they made it into their bedroom, there was only one thing Kylo wanted. It wasn’t all that late, but Kylo got ready for bed anyway, knowing he’d probably end up falling asleep shortly. Hux followed suit.

“Get in bed,” Kylo told him. Hux did asked and for a brief moment, they simply looked at each other. Kylo smiled at his boyfriend before climbing in bed next to him, laying his head on his chest.

“This is what you want?” Hux asked as he put his arms around him. Kylo couldn’t help but snuggle closer. 

“Yes.” Even if nothing had gone wrong, it had still been a stressful day and all he wanted was to curl up in Hux’s arms and be held. Hux kissed the top of his head and brought a hand up to run through his hair, and Kylo fell asleep knowing that no matter what happened, he’d always have Hux.


End file.
